Phoenix lander screaming toward Mars landing

FLORIDA TODAY • MAY 14, 2008

NASA's Phoenix spacecraft is closing in on Mars and appears ready for an unprecedented attempt to land near the planet's north pole, agency officials said Tuesday.

"The spacecraft is in perfect health right now," said Barry Goldstein, NASA's Phoenix program manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The journey has been so remarkably uneventful, it's scary how clean it's been."

Mission managers have encountered only one relatively minor problem — a galactic cosmic ray triggered a flight computer glitch back in October — during the 10-month voyage to Mars.

Launched Aug. 4 aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Phoenix lander is nearing the end of a 422-million-mile journey through the inner solar system.

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