Mars Express supports Phoenix Mars landing (Forwarded)

ESA News
http://www.esa.int

26 May 2008

Mars Express supports Phoenix Mars landing

Today at 00:57 UTC (02:57 CEST), crucial data recorded by ESA's Mars Express
during Phoenix's descent to the Martian surface were successfully received
at the European Space Operations Centre.

The European Space Agency today completed a key step in the Agency's ongoing
support to NASA's Phoenix mission, when signals from Phoenix recorded by
Mars Express were successfully received at ESA's Space Operations Centre
(ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany.

The signals were monitored between 23:21-23:47 UTC (01:21-01:47 CEST 26 May)
during the lander's critical entry, descent and landing (EDL) phase, and
were received by the European spacecraft via the Mars Express Lander
Communications (MELACOM) system.

New friend in the neighbourhood

"Congratulations to our NASA colleagues on a hugely successful landing. The
Mars Express team welcomes a new friend in the neighbourhood," said Paolo
Ferri, Head of the Solar and Planetary Missions Division at ESOC.

Confirmation of ESA's support to the landing came in the early morning of 26
May at 00:52 UTC (02:52 CEST), after a 17-minute download transmitted from
Mars Express via NASA's Deep Space Network; the data will be downloaded
twice again to ensure fidelity.

The data were immediately made available to NASA, and will assist scientists
to analyse Phoenix's entry, descent and landing (EDL) performance, comparing
the actual to the planned trajectory.

In the coming days, Mars Express will monitor Phoenix using MELACOM 15 more
times; at least one of these will be used to demonstrate and confirm that
the ESA spacecraft can be used as a data relay station for NASA, receiving
data from the surface and transmitting test commands to the lander.

[NOTE: Images and weblinks supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMUVI1YUFF_index_1.html ]