There's Now A Fourth Eye In The Martian Sky

They've done it -- again! Aero-News just received word that NASA's  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter successfully pulled off its "orbit insertion" and began circling the red planet on Friday.

"It was picture perfect. We could not have planned it any better," MRO Project Manager Jim Graf told CNN.

Right on schedule, the spacecraft fired its main engines at 4:24 EST, beginning the 27-minute burn that allowed the probe to be captured by Mars' gravity.

Twenty-one minutes into the burn, the spacecraft disappeared into the shadow of Mars -- thus putting it out of contact with Earth. For the next half-hour, controllers waited anxiously, until...

"Right on the money ... look at that!" an excited and relieved mission control worker yelled at 5:16 pm, as the probe's signal once again sounded strong through speakers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Over the next six months, controllers will fine-tune the MRO's orbit to better suit scientific observation of the Martian surface, before official data gathering begins in November.

The MRO joins its fellow NASA orbiters Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor -- as well as the ESA's Mars Express -- in orbit around the Red Planet, gathering information. Of course, there's also the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, still plugging away on the surface.

By a significant margin, the MRO -- which will function as both a geological explorer and weather satellite -- carries far more scientific equipment than any of those other spacecraft. Scientists expect that equipment will pay off.

"I think that this mission will re-write the science books on Mars," Graf said.

FMI: www.nasa.gov