Spaceflight

Flight International online news 08:30 GMT: Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) began its seven-month flight to Mars successfully on 12 August.

 Photo: Nasa

An Atlas V launch vehicle, 19 stories tall with the two-ton spacecraft on top, roared away from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 12:43 a.m. GMT.

 The orbiter carries six scientific instruments for examining the surface, atmosphere and subsurface of Mars in unprecedented detail from low orbit. Nasa expects to get several times more data about Mars from MRO than from all previous Martian missions combined.

 Researchers will use the instruments to learn more about the history and distribution of Mars' water. 

The orbiter will also evaluate potential landing sites for future missions. MRO will use its high-data-rate communications system to relay information between Mars surface missions and Earth.

 Mars is 72 million miles from Earth today, but the spacecraft will travel more than four times that distance on its outbound-arc trajectory to intercept the red planet on March 10, 2006.