Phoenix Heads for Mars!
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander launches into space atop a Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 5:26:34 a.m. EDT (0926:34 GMT) on Aug. 4, 2007. Credit: NASA TV.
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander lit up the predawn Florida sky Saturday, launching spaceward on a mission to determine whether the planet could have once supported primitive life.
A United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket launched Phoenix towards Mars at 5:26:34 a.m. EDT (0926:34 GMT) from Pad 17A at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The three-stage booster is bound for the flat northern plains of Vastitas Borealis near the martian north pole, where it is expected to dig into and sample the region's icy soil with its eight-foot (2.4-meter) robotic arm.
VIDEO: NASA's Phoenix: Rising to the Red Planet
Phoenix blasts off
