As of June 6, Mars Express passed the 620,000-mile (one million-kilometer) mark in distance away from Earth on its journey towards the Red Planet.
On June 5 the European Space Agency's spacecraft successfully released the clamps that held the Beagle 2 lander tight to the Mars Express orbiter during blastoff from Earth.
The clamps were necessary to ensure the lander remained perfectly fixed to its mother spacecraft - despite all the rumble, roar and vibration as the attached payloads shot skyward atop the Russian Soyuz/Fregat booster.
After the launch, the clamps are no longer needed. Another mechanism keeps Beagle 2 firmly in place during the six-month, outbound voyage to the Red Planet. However, if the launch clamps had not released, a second mechanism would have failed. That second piece of hardware pushes Beagle 2 away from Mars Express as it closes in on the target planet.
It was tense times for Mars Express ground controllers at the European Space Operations Center (ESOC), in Germany. The release of the launch clamps started at 4:10 a.m. EDT (10.10 CEST) and lasted about 30 minutes. The release mechanism itself is unusual. Usually, launch clamps contain a firework-like mechanism, but Mars Express had a much gentler release mechanism for Beagle.
The release clamps required a systematic step-by-step procedure that lasted about one-half hour. An electric current is utilized to expand a sleeve that, in turn, breaks the grip of three bolts, one by one.
"The atmosphere in the room was tense and those two minutes seemed to last an eternity! When the first bolt went, a lot of tension was released," said Con McCarthy. ESA Lander Manager.
The Mars Express mission lifted off from Baïkonur in Kazakhstan on June 2. An interim orbit around the Earth was reached following a first firing of the Fregat upper stage. One hour thirty-two minutes after blastoff, the spacecraft was injected into its interplanetary orbit.
The spacecraft has completed the first of several trajectory correction maneuvers.
Mars Express has also successfully switched from the low-gain antenna to the high-gain antenna for communication with mission control at the European Space Operations Center (ESOC) in Germany.
The high gain antenna is a circular dish attached to one face of the spacecraft body and is nearly 6-feet (1.8 meters) in diameter. It is used for receiving and transmitting radio signals when the spacecraft is a long way from Earth.
More hurdles are ahead, note ESA officials. But Mars Express/Beagle 2 appears to be in good shape at present for the long haul to Mars.
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