PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011

Mars Pathfinder Mission Status
December 4, 1996
5:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time
Mars Pathfinder – the second in NASA's decade-long program of missions to Mars – blasted into space at 1:58:06 a.m. Eastern time today on the third day of its launch period from Cape Canaveral, Fl.

Launched about a month after NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, Pathfinder successfully separated from the Delta launch vehicle at about 500 miles above Earth and was sent on it's way to Mars. The spacecraft is on a fast track to Mars that will place it on the surface of the planet on July 4, 1997.

All critical spacecraft systems such as power, temperature and attitude control were performing well, the spacecraft team reported at a post-launch briefing at Kennedy Space Center. "Everything looks really good and we're very happy," said Tony Spear, Pathfinder project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Data from the spacecraft's sun sensor, however, indicated an unexpectedly low voltage output, which the team planned to continue analyzing throughout the day. Various adjustments can be made to correct the sensor settings for the seven-month flight to Mars.

Mars Pathfinder is the second of NASA's Discovery program missions, designed to send low-cost spacecraft with highly focused science goals into space. The Spacecraft will be the first to land on the surface of Mars since the Viking landers of the mid-1970s.

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