* Astronomy

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Mars Odyssey spacecraft

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RE: Mars Odyssey orbiter

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Mars Orbiter Repositioned to Phone Home Mars Landing

NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has successfully adjusted its orbital location to be in a better position to provide prompt confirmation of the August landing of the Curiosity rover.
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft carrying Curiosity can send limited information directly to Earth as it enters Mars' atmosphere. Before the landing, Earth will set below the Martian horizon from the descending spacecraft's perspective, ending that direct route of communication. Odyssey will help to speed up the indirect communication process.
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Orbiter Enters, Then Exits, Standby Safe Mode

NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter experienced about 21 hours in a reduced-activity precautionary status ending at about 13:00 UT on Thursday, July 12.
The orbiter put itself in the precautionary, Earth-pointed status called safe mode, at about 20:00 UT on July 11, as it finished a manoeuvre adjusting, or trimming, its orbit. Odyssey's computer did not reboot, so diagnostic information was subsequently available from the spacecraft's onboard memory. Based on analysis of that information, the mission's controllers sent commands yesterday morning taking Odyssey out of safe mode and reorienting it to point downward at Mars.
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Longest-Lived Mars Orbiter is Back in Service

NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has resumed its science observations and its role as a Mars rover's relay, thanks to a spare part that had been waiting 11 years to be put to use.
Odyssey's flight team returned the orbiter to full service this week after a careful two-week sequence of activities to recover from a fault that put Odyssey into reduced-activity "safe" mode. Odyssey switched to safe mode when one of the three primary reaction wheels used for attitude control stuck for a few minutes on June 8, Universal Time (June 7, Pacific Time).
Engineers assessed the sticking wheel as unreliable and switched the spacecraft from that one to a spare that had been unused since before the mission's April 7, 2001, launch.
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NASA troubleshoots problem on Mars Odyssey orbiter

A NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars is in safe mode after it detected a problem.
The Mars Odyssey, which has been circling the red planet since 2001, noticed something odd with one of its gyroscope-like devices that helps control its orientation and entered standby mode as a precaution Thursday evening.
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The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft was launched April 7, 2001

A Delta rocket launches the Mars Odyssey spacecraft

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2001 Mars Odyssey is a robotic spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars.
Odyssey was launched April 7, 2001 on a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and reached Mars orbit on October 24, 2001, at 2:30 a.m. UTC (October 23, 7:30 p.m. PDT, 10:30 p.m. EDT).
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Odyssey Orbiter Nears Martian Longevity Record

By the middle of next week, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter will have worked longer at Mars than any other spacecraft in history.
Odyssey entered orbit around Mars on Oct. 24, 2001. On Dec. 15, the 3,340th day since that arrival, it will pass the Martian career longevity record set by its predecessor, Mars Global Surveyor, which operated in orbit from Sept. 11, 1997, to Nov. 2, 2006.
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Orbiter Puts Itself Into Standby Safe Mode

NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter put itself into a safe standby mode on Wednesday, July 14, and the team operating the spacecraft has begun implementing careful steps designed to resume Odyssey's science and relay operations this week.
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