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Delayed by three days for bad weather and a last-minute software glitch, a giant two-ton spacecraft was bound for Mars today carrying telescopes, cameras and an array of instruments designed to examine the planet from orbit in far closer detail than any Mars flight has ever achieved before.
The spacecraft rose from its Cape Canaveral launch pad early in the morning aboard an Atlas V rocket and headed on a six-month voyage toward its target 72 million miles away.
"It couldn't have gone any smoother," said launch manager Charles Dovale, and James Garvin, NASA's chief scientist, exclaimed. "I'm bouncing off the walls. We're ecstatic."
Flying over both Martian poles at an average altitude of only 190 miles, the new spacecraft will cover Mars' entire surface for nearly two years during its $720 million mission, pinpointing features as small as a desk top and probing nearly half a mile deep beneath the planet's shifting sands with specialized Italian-built radar.
www.sfgate.com
The spacecraft rose from its Cape Canaveral launch pad early in the morning aboard an Atlas V rocket and headed on a six-month voyage toward its target 72 million miles away.
"It couldn't have gone any smoother," said launch manager Charles Dovale, and James Garvin, NASA's chief scientist, exclaimed. "I'm bouncing off the walls. We're ecstatic."
Flying over both Martian poles at an average altitude of only 190 miles, the new spacecraft will cover Mars' entire surface for nearly two years during its $720 million mission, pinpointing features as small as a desk top and probing nearly half a mile deep beneath the planet's shifting sands with specialized Italian-built radar.
Spacecraft takes off for Mars
Delayed by three days for bad weather and a last-minute software glitch, a giant two-ton...
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