[X] My Assistant

[punkboi]

NASA's next Mars spacecraft is set to fly to Florida today...if weather cooperates in snowy Colorado.

Moving Day to Mars
Author Leonard David
NASA’s Phoenix Mars lander is slated to start its long distance love affair with the red planet today - but by airlift.

A C-17 cargo plane is ready at Buckley Air Force Base here in Colorado to deliver the next Mars mission to Florida, the next step toward its blastoff in August. Liftoff is a mere 87 days away atop a Delta 2 booster.

Phoenix is targeted for a legged landing at Mars’ arctic region in May 2008.

It’s all tender-loving care today as the spacecraft builders, technicians and other specialists at Lockheed Martin Space Systems have crated up the Phoenix spacecraft near Denver, Colorado for its flight to Florida.

If the weather cooperates — it’s snowing here this morning — I’ll be onboard the cargo plane headed to the warmer climes of Florida later today.

http://www.livescience.com/blogs/2007/05/0...ng-day-to-mars/

[djellison]

I can't see Mardi? It must be there - I thought it was bolted onto the side of the bus, looking a bit like an extra thruster. Has it been moved inboard to look thru that circular cut in the bottom of the bus?

Pictures of spin testing minus the heatshield. I'm hoping the de-stack the lander from the backshell so that the excellent KSC photo guys can get some great shots of the lander before August. I'm guessing they do a spin balanace of the stack minus the heatshield now to get an idea of what balance ballast needs to be fitted to the heatshield so that when they do a spin test of the stack again before launch - all should be spot on.


Doug

[mcaplinger]

I can't see Mardi? It must be there - I thought it was bolted onto the side of the bus, looking a bit like an extra thruster.

In KSC-07PD-1091, it's the thing with the blue glove on top of it. It's mounted to a bracket on the bottom surface of the science deck.