The Mars Odyssey 2001 space probe has successfully being inserted into orbit about Mars following a 20 minute engine burn. Confirmation of the successful orbital insertion came at 7.56pm Pacific Time Tuesday evening when Odyssey's time delayed signal was reacquired by NASA's Deep Space Network.
This is the first time a probe has approached Mars since the failure of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander probes in 1999. It arrives after a 200-day, 460 million kilometer (286 million mile) voyage and will spend the two-and-a-half years helping planetary scientists study the geology and chemical composition of the red planet.
On Tuesday, at 7:26pm Pacific time (0226 GMT Wednesday), the Mars Odyssey fired its main engine for 20 minutes to slow down for the delicate operation of entering the red planet's orbit, according to officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
"The flight team uplinked the sequence of commands that control the orbit insertion on October 15. Now we will closely monitor the spacecraft's progress as it approaches Mars and executes the orbit insertion burn," said Odyssey project manager Matthew Landano.
Before going into orbit, the probe's fuel tanks — the size of two volleyballs — were pressurized and the hydraulic pipes warmed. Firing the main engine for 20 minutes burnt 262.9 kilograms (580 pounds) of fuel.
The probe's initial orbit, in an oval shape, will last for 19 hours, gradually becoming smaller until the probe touches the atmosphere of the red planet, in a difficult process known as
