Urgent: NASA Spacecraft Enters Mars Orbit Successfully

Urgent: NASA spacecraft enters Mars orbit successfully

LOS ANGELES, March 10 (Xinhua) — The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of U.S. space agency NASA successfully inserted itself into the Mars orbit Friday afternoon.

The spacecraft maneuvered for about 25 minutes, fired its onboard rockets, slowed its speed relative to the red planet, and then let itself be captured by Martian gravity.

Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, cheered and applauded when they re-acquired the signal of the spacecraft designed to explore Mars with the most advanced technology.