Sitting atop a Delta II rocket. NASA's Phoenix spacecraft lifted off at
5:26 am EDT on August 4th. 2007. beginning its journey to Mars.
The Delta II. a three-stage rocket equipped with nine strap-on solid rocket boosters.
launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Phoenix landed May 25. 2008. farther north than any previous spacecraft to land on the Martian surface.
For more than five months. the lander dug. scooped. baked. sniffed and tasted the Red Planet's soil.
It verified the presence of water-ice in the Martian subsurface. which NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter first detected remotely in 2002.
Phoenix's cameras also returned more than 25.000 pictures.
Mangers for NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander declared an end to the successful mission in
2010 after repeated attempts to contact the spacecraft failed.
The lander was not designed to survive the dark. cold. icy winter on Mars.
Now. Earth-based research continues on discoveries made by Phoenix.