Aug 12 2005
From The Space Library
NASA launched its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) at 7:43 a.m. (EDT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on an Atlas 5 launch vehicle. The occasion marked the first time that NASA had used an Atlas 5 to launch an interplanetary mission. NASA had designed the MRO to conduct highly detailed analyses of Mars's atmosphere, surface, and subsurface. From low orbit, the MRO would evaluate landing sites for future Mars missions and search for sites where water might have previously existed. NASA planned to examine the MRO data to seek evidence of previous life on the planet and to study planetary climate change. After two years of gathering data, the MRO would relay the information to Earth, using two robotic probes scheduled to arrive on Mars in 2008 and 20 10. (NASA, “NASA's Multipurpose Mars Mission Successfully Launched,” news release 05-218, 12 August 2005; Thomas H. Maugh II, “New Mars Orbiter Embarks on Ambitious Fact-Finding Mission,” Los Angeles Times, 13 August 2005.)
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