Several crucial devices aboard NASA’s Mars-bound Phoenix lander have passed in-flight testing.
Mission managers remotely inspected Phoenix’s descent-monitoring radar as well as its UHF radio, which will communicate with Mars satellites after it reaches the red planet’s surface on May 25, 2008. The instruments passed all tests with flying colors as the craft zooms through space at 76,000 mph (34 kilometers per second).
“Everything is going as planned. No surprises, but this is one of those times when boring is good,” said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.