Spaceflight

■ NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) entered an elliptical orbit around the planet on 10 March, after a 27min insertion burn. The orbit will gradually be circularised during a series of aerobraking manoeuvres in the upper atmosphere. The final orbit will be around the poles at 255-320km (160-200 miles). MRO will take 1m (3.3ft)-resolution images and will also act as the communications relay satellite for the future NASA Phoenix lander and Mars Science Laboratory rover missions which are scheduled to land in 2008 and 2010 respectively.
■ MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates has been awarded a conceptual design and mission definition contract from the Canadian Space Agency for a new fleet of Earth observation satellites to complement the two-satellite Radarsat fleet. Radarsat 1 was launched in 1995 and No 2 will follow this December.