MER Status Report Week Ending April 26, 2003

It’s pretty much impossible to have a week of nothing but smooth
sailing on a project as complicated as this one, but the past week
was about as close as we come. The science payload on both rovers is
all done. The fix of the cable problem that made us delay our first
launch a couple of weeks ago is done too. And it went so well that
the launch date for MER-A has moved forward by a day, from June 6th
to June 5th.

The second rover is on its lander now. The first rover is even
farther along, folded up inside its lander and about to be tucked up
inside its protective aeroshell… where it will stay until it falls
out of a pink sky over Gusev Crater next January.

And coolest of all, our first rocket is coming together now. The
first stage of the MER-A launcher was put up on launch pad 17-A at
Cape Canaveral on Wednesday, and the second stage will follow
shortly. So there’s most of a real Mars rocket down in Florida now,
almost ready to have our first spacecraft to put on it.