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JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
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Mars Pathfinder Mission Status
July 4, 1997
7:30 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time
Mars Pathfinder is right on course for a landing in Ares Vallis, an ancient outflow channel in the northern hemisphere of Mars, at 10:07 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time today.

The navigation team reported that the final trajectory correction maneuver, which could have been performed either 12 hours or six hours prior to Pathfinder's entry into the upper atmosphere, was not necessary. An early morning orbital update indicated that Pathfinder was heading straight for the center of its 60-mile-by-120-mile landing ellipse and was expected to enter the upper atmosphere at a 13.9-degree angle, just three-quarters of a degree off its original entry angle of 14.2 degrees. Pieter Kallemeyn, navigation team chief, estimated that the spacecraft would touch down at 19.0 degrees north latitude, 326.3 degrees east longitude.

"To give you an idea of the accuracy that we have achieved here, this is the equivalent of playing a round of golf in which the hole is in Houston, Texas, and the tee-off is in Pasadena, California," Kallemeyn said. "We're basically hitting a hole in one here."

Spacecraft events prior to landing will include release of the cruise stage at about 9:32 a.m. PDT; entry into the upper atmosphere at about 10:02 a.m. PDT; and landing 4.5 minutes later.

The spacecraft is currently about 198,000 kilometers (123,000 miles) from Mars, traveling at a velocity of about 24,500 kilometers per hour (15,277 miles per hour) with respect to Mars.

The flight team expects to receive the first low-gain signal from the spacecraft at about 2:07 p.m. PDT. Contained in that transmission will be information about the spacecraft's entry, descent and landing, atmospheric science data and details on the health of the lander and rover.

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