Dec 4 1996
From The Space Library
NASA launched its second unpiloted craft, Mars Pathfinder, less than a month after the first, continuing its concentrated program of Mars exploration. The US$196 million Pathfinder lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a Delta II rocket, on a mission planned to cover more than 300 million miles (480 million kilometers). NASA researchers expected the six-wheeled craft to land on Mars, on 4 July 1997, and to journey across the planet's surface, gathering images of rocks and soil. Depending on how useful the images were, scientists planned for Pathfinder to roam Mars for at least one week and perhaps for months, straying no farther than approximately 60 feet (18 meters) away from its landing site.
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