Mars Orbiter Finally On Its Way

ANN REAL TIME NEWS: 0800 EDT -- After two delays, NASA launched its Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter Friday morning, atop Lockheed-Martin's powerful Atlas V booster. First, it was a suspect guidance component. Then it was a computer hiccup and a sensor malfunction in the fueling system. But after all that, the orbiter lifted off flawlessly.

Ironically, the fuel sensor malfunction is just the opposite of the one that plagued the space shuttle Discovery prior to its launch last month. In the case of MRO's Atlas V, the sensor reads "dry" even when the fuel tank is being filled with propellant.

In spite of the problems, Jim Graf, MRO project manager at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA, was confident in the Lockheed-Martin Atlas V. This is the booster's first interplanetary mission.

"It's just a thoroughbred waiting to break the bounds that's holding it back," Graf said, quoted by the Associated Press. "Release the reins and let it get out ... into space."

The MRO is now on a $720 mission to provide unequalled information on life-giving waters that scientists once think covered Mars in much larger quantities than found at the poles now. It carries the largest telescope ever launched on an interplanetary mission, along with other sensors that will help it plot future landing spots for both robotic and manned missions to the Red Planet.

FMI: http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/index.html