A Delta II rocket launched from Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:26 a.m. carrying the Mars lander Phoenix on a nine-month journey to Mars.
It is expected to arrive on Mars May 25, 2008 to analyze the red planet’s icy soil.
The surface of Mars is an unfriendly place. Dust devils churn constantly, and temperatures average a chilly 64 degrees below zero. The poles are even nastier: frozen, often dark and deathly cold.
But astronomers think that arctic wasteland could harbor the tiniest hint of life. Today, NASA plans to test this theory by launching a probe to study soil and ice at the fringe of Mars’ northern pole.
If everything goes well, the Phoenix spacecraft will parachute onto a frosty Martian plain next May or June. It would be NASA’s northernmost landing on the Red Planet and the first spacecraft sent to capture and analyze Martian water.
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