No Final Nudge Needed for Phoenix
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander will reach Mars this evening with no further adjustments to its flight path.
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander will reach Mars this evening with no further adjustments to its flight path. Mission controllers decided early Sunday not to use the last possible time for a trajectory correction maneuver, eight hours before landing.The first possible time for confirmation that Phoenix has landed will be at 4:53 p.m. Pacific Time today. The landing would have happened 15 minutes earlier on Mars, but radio signals take 15 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth at the distance separating the two planets today, 171 million miles.You can also follow landing events throughout the day onNASA TVand on the Phoenix landing blog atwww.nasa.gov/phoenixblog.