Russia Launches Mission To Mars

A Russian rocket blasted into space Saturday night, heading for Mars in a mission that could give the struggling Russian space program a new lease on life.

With new evidence suggesting there may have been life on Mars, Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor, interest in the Red Planet has never been higher.

The four-stage Proton booster lifted off at 11:48 p.m. Moscow time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

It will take 10 months for the Mars ‘96 spacecraft - with its cargo of scientific instruments from a score of nations, including the United States - to complete its journey of roughly 480 million miles.

Five days before its scheduled arrival in September 1997, two of the spacecraft’s four landers will detach and, connected to parachutes, will drop down to an area on Mars called Amazonis Planitia.

Airbags will cushion their impact, and then they will open, like four-petaled mechanical flowers, exposing a variety of scientific instruments that will send data back to Earth.

The other two landers are in essence giant darts that will rocket downward, slamming into the surface of Mars at speeds of around 220 mph.

If all goes well and they don’t hit something hard like rock or ice, they’ll plunge several yards into the surface. For the next year, they’ll send back readings on things like seismic activity and the soil.