Phoenix rustles wings for Mars

A US Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft has carried NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander spacecraft from Colorado to Florida, where it will be launched in August.

Next spring, Phoenix will land on a Martian arctic plain and use a robotic digging arm and other instruments to determine whether the sub-soil could have supported microbial life.

Workers in Denver have been assembling and testing the spacecraft for more than a year. 'Assembly, integration and testing of the craft have gone very well. We delivered Phoenix stowed inside its back shell and it will stay in that configuration until it lands softly on Mars,' said Ed Sedivy, Phoenix programme manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver.

A Delta II launch vehicle will start Phoenix on its longer trip from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.