Timeline of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

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Major events in the launch, aerobraking, and transition phases of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

1 Launch and cruise timeline
2 Orbital insertion/ Aerobraking timeline
3 Transition timeline
4 Future
5 References

[edit] Launch and cruise timeline

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April 30, 2005: the MRO spacecraft was delivered to the launch site.
August 9, 2005: the August 10 launch opportunity was postponed because of reliability concerns over the Atlas V's gyroscopes.
August 10, 2005: concerns over the gyroscopes were resolved. Launch was scheduled for 7:50 am EST, August 11.
August 11, 2005: concerns over weather cause a rescheduling of the launch to 9:00 am EST. Conflicting sensor readings during fueling of the Centaur stage's liquid hydrogen fuel tank could not be corrected in time, causing the launch to be scrubbed and rescheduled for 7:43 am EST August 12.^[1]
August 12, 2005: at 7:43 am EST, MRO was launched. There were no significant anomalies reported during launch and deployment into interplanetary transfer orbit.
August 15, 2005: MARCI was tested and calibrated.
August 25, 2005: at 15:19:32 UTC, MRO was 100 million kilometers from Mars.
August 27, 2005: the first trajectory correction maneuver was executed. The burn used the same main thrusters that are needed for the orbital insertion maneuver and lasted 15 seconds. A velocity change of 7.8 m/s was achieved.
September 8, 2005: MRO completed calibration and testing of the HiRISE and CTX cameras by taking pictures of the Moon from 10 million kilometers away.
November 18, 2005: MRO underwent its second scheduled course correction by firing its 6 medium thrusters for 20 seconds and changing its velocity by 75 cm/s.
January 29, 2006: at 06:59:24 UTC, MRO was 10 million kilometers from Mars.
February 3, 2006: MRO began the Approach Phase, in preparation for orbital insertion.

[edit] Orbital insertion/ Aerobraking timeline

First image of Mars from the HiRISE camera

March 10, 2006: MRO successfully completed orbital insertion.
March 23, 2006: test images from three of MRO's cameras were taken. HiRISE images were taken over the course of two orbits, the first returned from a height of 2500 km (at about ten times poorer resolution than when the camera is in its final orbit). The CTX and MARCI cameras also took test images. ^[2]^,^[3]
March 30, 2006: MRO fired its intermediate thrusters for 58 seconds and dropped its periapsis by 94 km, in preparation to begin aerobraking.
April 7, 2006: MRO begins a seven month long Aerobraking Stage to reduce its highly elliptical orbit to a circular, low Mars orbit by mid-November.
August 30, 2006 Aerobraking ended with a 6 minute burn of MRO's Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) thrusters.^[4]
September 5, 2006 The first of two burns to correctly position MRO into it's final science orbit was performed.
September 11, 2006 The second of two burns to finalize MRO's orbit was performed, officially ending the Aerobraking Stage.

[edit] Transition timeline

September 16, 2006 SHARAD was successfully deployed from MRO. ^[5]
September 24, 2006 MCS and MARCI commenced operations, commencing a martian weather forcast.
September 27, 2006 CRISM was powered on for the first time in space, and it's lens cap was removed. In addition, SHARAD, HiRISE, and CTX were also powered on for the first time. ^[6]
September 28, 2006, CRISM took its first picture at Mars.