Jacques van Oene
August 12th 05, 05:00 PM
Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington August 12, 2005
(Phone: 202/358-1753)
George Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
(Phone: 321/867-2468)
Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-6278)
RELEASE: 05-219
NASA'S MULTIPURPOSE MARS MISSION SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED
A seven-month flight to Mars began this morning for NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It will inspect the red planet in fine detail
and assist future landers.
An Atlas V launch vehicle, 19 stories tall with the two-ton spacecraft on
top, roared away from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
at 7:43 a.m. EDT. Its powerful first stage consumed about 200 tons of fuel
and oxygen in just over four minutes, then dropped away to let the upper
stage finish the job of putting the spacecraft on a path toward Mars. This
was the first launch of an interplanetary mission on an Atlas V.
"We have a healthy spacecraft on its way to Mars and a lot of happy people
who made this possible," said James Graf, project manager for MRO at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.
MRO established radio contact with controllers 61 minutes after launch and
within four minutes of separation from the upper stage. Initial contact came
through an antenna at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Uchinoura
Space Center in southern Japan.
Health and status information about the orbiter's subsystems were received
through Uchinoura and the Goldstone, Calif., antenna station of NASA's Deep
Space Network. By 14 minutes after separation, the craft's solar panels
finished unfolding, enabling the MRO to start recharging batteries and
operate as a fully functional spacecraft.
The orbiter carries six scientific instruments for examining the surface,
atmosphere and subsurface of Mars in unprecedented detail from low orbit.
For example, its high-resolution camera will reveal features as small as a
dishwasher. NASA expects to get several times more data about Mars from MRO
than from all previous Martian missions combined.
Researchers will use the instruments to learn more about the history and
distribution of Mars' water. That information will improve understanding of
planetary climate change and will help guide the quest to answer whether
Mars ever supported life. The orbiter will also evaluate potential landing
sites for future missions. MRO will use its high-data-rate communications
system to relay information between Mars surface missions and Earth.
Mars is 72 million miles from Earth today, but the spacecraft will travel
more than four times that distance on its outbound-arc trajectory to
intercept the red planet on March 10, 2006. The cruise period will be busy
with checkups, calibrations and trajectory adjustments.
On arrival day, the spacecraft will fire its engines and slow itself enough
for Martian gravity to capture it into a very elongated orbit. The
spacecraft will spend half a year gradually shrinking and shaping its orbit
by "aerobraking," a technique using the friction of carefully calculated
dips into the upper atmosphere to slow the vehicle. The mission's main
science phase is scheduled to begin in November 2006.
The launch was originally scheduled for August 10, but was delayed first due
to a gyroscope issue on a different Atlas V, and the next day because of a
software glitch.
The mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of
Technology, Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed
Martin Space Systems, Denver, prime contractor for the project, built both
the spacecraft and the launch vehicle.
NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center is responsible
for government engineering oversight of the Atlas V, spacecraft/launch
vehicle integration and launch day countdown management.
For more information about MRO on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mro
For information about NASA and other agency programs on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html
-end-
--
--------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info
Headquarters, Washington August 12, 2005
(Phone: 202/358-1753)
George Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
(Phone: 321/867-2468)
Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-6278)
RELEASE: 05-219
NASA'S MULTIPURPOSE MARS MISSION SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED
A seven-month flight to Mars began this morning for NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It will inspect the red planet in fine detail
and assist future landers.
An Atlas V launch vehicle, 19 stories tall with the two-ton spacecraft on
top, roared away from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
at 7:43 a.m. EDT. Its powerful first stage consumed about 200 tons of fuel
and oxygen in just over four minutes, then dropped away to let the upper
stage finish the job of putting the spacecraft on a path toward Mars. This
was the first launch of an interplanetary mission on an Atlas V.
"We have a healthy spacecraft on its way to Mars and a lot of happy people
who made this possible," said James Graf, project manager for MRO at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.
MRO established radio contact with controllers 61 minutes after launch and
within four minutes of separation from the upper stage. Initial contact came
through an antenna at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Uchinoura
Space Center in southern Japan.
Health and status information about the orbiter's subsystems were received
through Uchinoura and the Goldstone, Calif., antenna station of NASA's Deep
Space Network. By 14 minutes after separation, the craft's solar panels
finished unfolding, enabling the MRO to start recharging batteries and
operate as a fully functional spacecraft.
The orbiter carries six scientific instruments for examining the surface,
atmosphere and subsurface of Mars in unprecedented detail from low orbit.
For example, its high-resolution camera will reveal features as small as a
dishwasher. NASA expects to get several times more data about Mars from MRO
than from all previous Martian missions combined.
Researchers will use the instruments to learn more about the history and
distribution of Mars' water. That information will improve understanding of
planetary climate change and will help guide the quest to answer whether
Mars ever supported life. The orbiter will also evaluate potential landing
sites for future missions. MRO will use its high-data-rate communications
system to relay information between Mars surface missions and Earth.
Mars is 72 million miles from Earth today, but the spacecraft will travel
more than four times that distance on its outbound-arc trajectory to
intercept the red planet on March 10, 2006. The cruise period will be busy
with checkups, calibrations and trajectory adjustments.
On arrival day, the spacecraft will fire its engines and slow itself enough
for Martian gravity to capture it into a very elongated orbit. The
spacecraft will spend half a year gradually shrinking and shaping its orbit
by "aerobraking," a technique using the friction of carefully calculated
dips into the upper atmosphere to slow the vehicle. The mission's main
science phase is scheduled to begin in November 2006.
The launch was originally scheduled for August 10, but was delayed first due
to a gyroscope issue on a different Atlas V, and the next day because of a
software glitch.
The mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of
Technology, Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed
Martin Space Systems, Denver, prime contractor for the project, built both
the spacecraft and the launch vehicle.
NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center is responsible
for government engineering oversight of the Atlas V, spacecraft/launch
vehicle integration and launch day countdown management.
For more information about MRO on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mro
For information about NASA and other agency programs on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html
-end-
--
--------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info