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Delta 7425-9.5 | Mars Climate Orbiter
United States Air ForceLaunch Successful

Mars Climate Orbiter

Delta II 7425-9.5

Historical mission record

This page records Delta 7425-9.5 | Mars Climate Orbiter and its reported outcome: Launch Successful. The date above is a historical record.

Source record updated . This is a source update, not a confirmed launch time.

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How to read launch targets and status

Mission status
Launch Successful

Status reported by the mission data provider.

LAUNCH SITECape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

Mission

The Mars Surveyor '98 program is comprised of two spacecraft launched separately, the MCO (Mars Climate Orbiter, formerly the Mars Surveyor '98 Orbiter) and the MPL (Mars Polar Lander, formerly the Mars Surveyor '98 Lander). The two missions were to study the Martian weather, climate, and water and carbon dioxide budget, in order to understand the reservoirs, behavior, and atmospheric role of volatiles and to search for evidence of long-term and episodic climate changes. The Mars Climate Orbiter was destroyed when a navigation error caused it to miss its target altitude at Mars by 80 to 90 km, instead entering the Martian atmosphere at an altitude of 57 km during the orbit insertion maneuver.

Launch vehicle
Delta II 7425-9.5
Mission type
Robotic Exploration
Destination orbit
Heliocentric N/A
Launch pad
Space Launch Complex 17A
Provider
United States Air Force

The vehicle

Published configuration and flight history.

Delta II 7425-9.5
NASA
Launch vehicle

Delta II 7425-9.5

Delta II was an expendable launch system, originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas. Delta II was part of the Delta rocket family and entered service in 1989. Delta II vehicles included the Delta 6000, and the two later Delta 7000 variants ("Light" and "Heavy"). The rocket flew its final mission ICESat-2 on 15 September 2018, earning the launch vehicle a streak of 100 successful missions in a row, with the last failure being GPS IIR-1 in 1997.

Height
39 m
Diameter
2.44 m
Stages
4
Recorded launches
3
First flight
1998-12-11

Recorded timing

This is a mission record, not an upcoming calendar appointment.

Instantaneous windowPublished target
SCHEDULED MOMENT

A single scheduled moment. The schedule may change before launch.

Launch site & orbit

Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

The mission in perspective

Launch site

DestinationHeliocentric N/A

Explore the launch pad on Earth using its published coordinates.

Explore Earth’s orbits
NASA Blue Marble map of Earth's continents and oceans
Geographic view · illustrative lightingNo live tracking or simulated ascent. NASA Blue Marble.

Coverage & sources

Links supplied by the mission data provider.
Coverage and times may change.

Mission coverage

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Further reading

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