NASA s Odyssey Orbiter Marks 20 Historic Years of Mapping Mars
Odyssey’s Launch: Click (or touch) and drag to interact with this 3D model of NASA’s Odyssey orbiter, which celebrates its 20th launch anniversary on April 7, 2021. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
For two decades, the longest-lived spacecraft at the Red Planet has helped locate water ice, assess landing sites, and study the planet’s mysterious moons.
NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft launched 20 years ago on April 7, making it the oldest spacecraft still working at the Red Planet. The orbiter, which takes its name from Arthur C. Clarke’s classic sci-fi novel “2001: A Space Odyssey” (Clarke blessed its use before launch), was sent to map the composition of the Martian surface, providing a window to the past so scientists could piece together how the planet evolved.