Posted: Fri, Aug 3, 2007, 8:06 AM ET (1206 GMT)

NASA's Phoenix Mars mission is on track to launch on Saturday morning, project officials said Thursday. A Delta 2 rocket is scheduled to launch the Phoenix Mars lander mission Saturday morning at either 5:26:34 am or 6:02:59 am EDT (0926:34 or 1002:59 GMT) from Cape Canaveral. Launch preparations proceeded smoothly on Thursday, and forecasts call for good weather at launch time Saturday. The launch was postponed a day earlier this week when severe weather delayed the fueling of the Delta's second stage. The spacecraft will land in the north polar regions of Mars in May 2008.