The delayed Mars Global Surveyor has finally reached the right orbit. Last
week the engines pulled the spacecraft into a roughly circular orbit 367
kilometres above the surface of Mars. The satellite used the drag of the thin
atmosphere against its solar panels to bring it in closer to Mars. “It’s a year
later than we anticipated,” says Glenn Cunningham, the manager of NASA’s Mars
Surveyor Operations Project. The surveyor will soon begin mapping the planet’s
surface.
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