


May 14, 1999

Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO)

Retest of the UHF contact sequence was completed onboard the MCO spacecraft successfully early this morning. As in the initial UHF checkout in February, the orbiter simulated the initiation of a contact session with the lander, with Stanford University's 40 meter antenna recording in the orbiter's broadcast band to attempt detection of the "ping" waveforms transmitted by the orbiter. In an actual UHF session at Mars, the lander would respond by "pinging" back to the orbiter; subsequently data transfer between the two spacecraft would commence. The orbiter performed as expected during the test. Post-processing of the recordings made by the Stanford 40 meter dish have begun, but will likely take several days before results are available.

Mars Polar Lander (MPL)

Mars Polar Lander continues to perform quiescent cruise operations with no significant events to report.

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