Red Planet Arrival: NASA's MRO Spacecraft Enters Mars Orbit

NASA Mars Probe on Target for Orbital Arrival

An artist's interpretation of MRO's orbit insertion burn at Mars on March 10, 2006. (Image credit: NASA/JPL.)

This story was updated at 9:02 p.m. EST.

After seven monthsof interplanetary spaceflight, NASA's Mars ReconnaissanceOrbiter (MRO) successfully reached the red planet Friday totake an in-depth look at the dusty world.

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Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.