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1993-04-21
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F
P└OFFICE OF PUBLIC INFORMATION
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY, CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA. TELEPHONE 354-5011
FOR RELEASE: SUNDAY, JULY 6, 1969
The United States' Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 spacecraft
now are less than a month from their destination, the planet Mars.
The two unmanned planetary vehicles are designed to
conduct a comprehensive scientific investigation of Mars. Experi-
ments include television pictures of nearly the entire planet
during the approach as well as high-resolution pictures of
selected surface areas.
Pressure and chemical composition of the atmosphere will
be measured and surface and atmospheric temperature readings will
be taken.
Mariner 6 was launched on February 24, 1969, and will
complete its 156-day Earth-to-Mars journey at 10:18 p.m. PDT,
July 30, when it reaches a point in space only 2000 miles from
the planet. Mariner 6 is now 41 million miles from Earth and
nine million miles from Mars.
Mariner 7, launched March 27, will fly by Mars at an
altitude of 2000 miles at 10:00 p.m. PDT on August 4. Today's
position for Mariner 7 is 39 million miles from earth and 11
million miles from Mars.
Command center for the Mariner missions is in the Space
Flight Operations Facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California. JPL manages the Mariner 1969 Project for
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
-2-
The two spacecraft are being tracked and their perform-
ance monitored by stations of the NASA-JPL Deep Space Network in
California, Spain, Australia and South Africa.
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