spacetoday.net: Opportunity finally launched

Posted: Tue, Jul 8, 2003, 10:22 AM ET (1422 GMT)
Delta 2 Heavy launch of Opportunity (NASA/KSC)

A Delta 2 booster successfully launched the NASA Mars rover Opportunity Monday night after several delays and a last-second glitch. The Delta 2 Heavy lifted off from Pad 17B at Cape Canaveral, Florida at 11:18:15 pm EDT Monday (0318:15 GMT Tuesday), during the second of two one-second launch windows available that evening. The spacecraft separated from the rocket's third stage 83 minutes after launch. NASA was ready to launch the spacecraft 43 minutes earlier during the first launch window, but controllers halted the countdown at T-7 seconds because a liquid oxygen valve on the booster's first stage failed to close properly. The launch had been delayed nearly two weeks, primarily because of problems getting a strip of cork insulation to adhere properly to the first stage of the vehicle. One launch attempt on June 28 was scrubbed because of weather and a boat in a restricted zone offshore. The launch was the first for the Delta 2 Heavy, which uses the larger GEM 46 strap-on boosters originally developed for the Delta 3 to provide additional thrust. Opportunity, the second of two Mars Exploration Rovers, is scheduled to land on the Meridani Planum region of Mars on January 25, 2004.