2nd Mars Rover Finally Is Bound for Red Planet

A rocket carrying the second of two NASA Mars rovers soared into the sky over Cape Canaveral, Fla., Monday night, lighting up the darkness with a glowing orange flare as it began its roughly 300-million-mile journey to the Red Planet.

The Boeing Delta II Heavy rocket carrying the 384-pound rover, named Opportunity, lifted off at 11:18 p.m. EDT amid cheers from exuberant but exhausted Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers who built and tested both rovers and have been frustrated by a series of launch delays.

George Diller, a Kennedy Space Center spokesman and launch commentator, announced the successful liftoff of the rocket carrying Opportunity, calling it “a chance to explore and unlock the secrets of our neighboring planet.”

The two rovers, which together cost $800 million, are expected to reach Mars in January. The first rover was launched June 10. They will join two NASA orbiters now circling the planet and two spacecraft from Europe and Japan that are en route. In all, 17 countries are involved in Mars explorations.

“Literally the world is going to Mars,” Ed Weiler, NASA’s associate administrator for space science said at a prelaunch briefing at Kennedy Space Center.

Mars is as close to Earth as it has been in 60,000 years -- a time when Neanderthals were gazing at the stars. The planet’s proximity has given NASA the opportunity to send a much heavier spacecraft to the planet with the limited fuel of a relatively slender rocket.

The launch marked only the second time a Delta II Heavy rocket has been used. The Heavy version is a highly reliable Delta II with larger strap-on solid rocket motors to provide more power. The launch was originally scheduled for June 25 but was repeatedly delayed for a variety of reasons, including bad weather, faulty cork insulation on the rocket, battery problems and an errant fishing boat that had wandered too close to the launch site.

Monday night’s liftoff was delayed seven seconds short of its initial 10:25 p.m. EDT launch window because of a problem with a valve, Diller said. After testing the valve several times, engineers decided that it was functioning properly and gave the signal to resume the launch about six minutes before liftoff.

The launch came as a relief to NASA scientists. If the rover had not been launched by July 15, engineers would have had to wait another two years for the Earth and Mars to be close enough for Opportunity to reach the Red Planet on its limited fuel supply.

The newly launched rover is targeted to land at Meridiani Planum, a smooth plain near the Martian equator that contains traces of hematite, a mineral of interest to Mars experts because it often forms in water.

The goal of the rover mission is not to look for life or the presence of water today, but to determine if Mars once had large amounts of water on its surface. Such a finding would suggest Mars could have been hospitable to life in the past.

“This is a desolate, dry, barren world today,” said Steve Squyres, the Cornell University planetary scientist who is the mission’s lead investigator. “Yet when we look at Mars from orbit we see tantalizing clues that it was once wetter and warmer.”

The first rover, named Spirit, is now speeding toward Mars. It is headed to the 100-mile-wide Gusev Crater, which may have once been a lake bed fed by a river. Since Meridiani is considered a safer place to land, if anything goes wrong with Opportunity, Spirit will be redirected away from Gusev to land at Meridiani.

The five-foot long, six-wheeled rovers look a bit like huge dogs. A thick mast rising up from their bodies carries two cameras, eyes that offer “human equivalent vision,” according to Squyres. Three spectrometers on the rovers can analyze the chemistry and composition of rocks. One tool can grind away at the surface of rocks and expose the unweathered minerals and crystals within.

Engineers and scientists said they will not celebrate until the rovers land safely on Mars.

The planet has proved deadly to spacecraft: Of nine lander missions, only three have been successful.

Sending twin rovers improves the odds that at least one will survive the journey.

“It gives us two chances to land successfully,” Squyres said.