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MRO's orbit insertion explained
The make-or-break engine firing by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to enter orbit around Mars and the subsequent aerobraking to reach the low-altitude perch for science observations are explained by project manager Jim Graf in this narrated animation package.

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MRO overview briefing
Fuk Li, Mars program manager at JPL, Jim Graf, MRO project manager, Rich Zurek, MRO project scientist, and Dan McCleese, the principal investigator for the Mars Climate Sounder instrument, provide an overview on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on March 8, about 48 hours before arrival at Mars.

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Mars orbiter briefing
With two weeks until its arrival at the red planet, NASA and Lockheed Martin officials hold this Feb. 24 news conference on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The briefing explains how the MRO spacecraft will fire its engines to enter into orbit around Mars and the mission's scientific goals to examine the planet like never before.

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Mars probe leaves Earth
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter lifts off aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral's Complex 41.

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Progress undocking
The Russian Progress M-54 cargo freighter undocks from the International Space Station's Zvezda service module aft port on March 3, as viewed by onboard and ISS cameras. Known in the station's assembly sequence as Progress 19P, the craft was launched last September with food, water, equipment and fuel. It was filled with trash before the undocking to burn up in the atmosphere.

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Lockheed's CEV plans
As part of Lockheed Martin's plans for the Crew Exploration Vehicle, the company has announced that final assembly and testing of the capsules will be performed at the Kennedy Space Center's Operations and Checkout Building. Lockheed Martin officials, Florida's lieutenant governor, the local congressman and a county economic development leader held this press conference Feb. 22 to unveil the plans.

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Top Stories

Fate of Mars probe depends on Friday engine firing
These are tense days at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lockheed Martin spacecraft control centers where engineers are guiding the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to Friday's maneuvers for entering orbit around the planet.
   MISSION STATUS CENTER
   EARLIER COVERAGE
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VIDEO: EXPLANATION OF MARS ORBIT INSERTION SEQUENCE PLAY
VIDEO: WEDNESDAY'S MISSION UPDATE DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
MORE: MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER COVERAGE
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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter nears arrival
NASA's $720 million Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission faces a make-or-break milestone March 10 when it fires its main engines for nearly a half hour, slowing the craft enough to slip into orbit around the red planet. If the burn doesn't work or is too short, MRO will race past Mars and on into a useless orbit around the sun.
   FULL STORY [Posted: Feb. 24]
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VIDEO: MARS ARRIVAL PREVIEW NEWS BRIEFING DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
AUDIO: LISTEN TO THE NEWS CONFERENCE FOR IPOD
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Launch Coverage

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter fires its engines
Doubling as a course-adjusting burn and a test run of the engines that will put the spacecraft into orbit around the Red Planet next March, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter completed its first Trajectory Correction Maneuver on Aug. 27. "Everything looks right on," Wayne Sidney, MRO mission operations lead at Lockheed Martin said immediately after the roughly 15-second maneuver. "We're extremely pleased."
   PREVIEW STORY
   VIDEO: FULL COVERAGE OF MRO
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter cruising normally
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched on Aug. 12, has completed one of the first tasks of its seven-month cruise to Mars, a calibration activity for the spacecraft's Mars Color Imager instrument.
   FULL STORY
Sharp-eyed orbiter dispatched to Mars
A Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket boosted NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter into space August 12, kicking off a $720 million mission to sniff out underground ice deposits, to map the red planet's geology with unprecedented clarity and to monitor its tenuous, dusty atmosphere in an ongoing scientific assault.
   FULL STORY
   MISSION STATUS CENTER
   VIDEO: FULL COVERAGE OF MRO
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VIDEO: LAUNCH OF MARS ORBITER SHORT | LONGER VERSION
VIDEO: LIFTOFF AS SEEN FROM SHUTTLE VAB ROOF PLAY
VIDEO: PLAYALINDA BEACH TRACKING CAMERA PLAY
VIDEO: TRACKING CAMERA POSITIONED SOUTH OF PAD PLAY
VIDEO: STATIC TEST ROAD VIEWING MOUND PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH COMPLEX'S EAST CAMERA PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH COMPLEX'S SOUTH CAMERA PLAY
VIDEO: VERTICAL INTEGRATION FACILITY ROOF-CAM PLAY
VIDEO: POST-FLIGHT INTERVIEW NASA LAUNCH DIRECTOR PLAY
VIDEO: POST-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
VIDEO: THURSDAY'S LAUNCH ATTEMPT IS SCRUBBED PLAY
VIDEO: ROCKET IS ROLLED TO PAD WEDNESDAY NIGHT PLAY
VIDEO: ATLAS 5 ROCKET PRE-LAUNCH PREPS PLAY
VIDEO: MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER PRE-LAUNCH PREPS PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ATLAS 5 LAUNCH ANIMATION PLAY
VIDEO: SCIENCE PREVIEW BRIEFING DIAL-UP | BROADBAND 1 & 2
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE DIAL-UP | BROADBAND 1 & 2
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Pre-launch photo gallery
This is a gallery of Lockheed Martin photos showing the Atlas 5 rocket's nighttime from the Vertical Integration Facility assembly building to the Complex 41 launch pad Wednesday night and daytime views of the vehicle during Thursday's post-scrub countdown recycle.
   PHOTO GALLERY
Mars launch photo gallery
The first interplanetary Atlas 5 rocket was launched Friday from Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 to propel NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on its seven-month voyage to the Red Planet. This is a gallery of photos showing the Lockheed Martin-built rocket's beautiful morning liftoff.
   PHOTO GALLERY
Martian radars to peer below Red Planet's surface
Interplanetary geologists are busy this week analyzing the first sets of data from an Italian subsurface sounding radar currently orbiting Mars, as a crucial counterpart sits on a Florida launch pad ready to join the hunt for conjectured underground ice and water.
   FULL STORY