Mars Express — Celebrating 10 Years

[Deano]

On June 2, 2003, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express orbiter was launched toward the red planet, entering into orbit just six months later. Though the accompanying Beagle 2 lander failed to establish radio contact from Mars’s surface, the orbiter is still swinging around Mars ten years on. Mars Express orbits roughly every 8 hours to collect data on Mars, its moons, and even the Sun.
Since the 1960s hard experience and lost missions have taught us that reaching Mars is supremely difficult. Overcoming the immense challenge of getting there made success even sweeter. Upon entry into Mars orbit on Christmas eve in 2003, ESA’s Spacecraft Operations Manager Michel Denis recalls “yelling, with my loudest voice, ‘We are at Maaaaaaaars!’”
Full story & video clips at skyandtelescope

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