KSC-98pc1819
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Workers guide the lifting of the first stage of a Delta II rocket up the gantry at Launch Complex 17B, Cape Canaveral Air Station. The rocket will be used to launch the Mars Polar Lander on Jan. 3, 1999. The lander is a solar-powered spacecraft designed to touch down on the Martian surface near the northern-most boundary of the south pole in order to study the water cycle there. The lander also will help scientists learn more about climate change and current resources on Mars, studying such things as frost, dust, water vapor and condensates in the Martian atmosphere. It is the second spacecraft to be launched in a pair of Mars '98 missions. The first is the Mars Climate Orbiter, to be launched aboard a Delta II rocket from Launch Complex 17A on Dec. 10, 1998
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Details
NASA ID
KSC-98pc1819
Date Created
November 28, 1998
Center
KSC
Media Type
image
Location
Kennedy Space Center, FL
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