Status report
ESA's Mars Express spacecraft is currently in a near-final orbit around Mars with a period of 10 hours. Flight controllers are now isolating the main engine, which fired for the last time on 11 January, finishing its work on the mission after performing flawlessly.
To complete the manoeuvre into its final operational orbit, Mars Express will make a series of seven firings of its small thrusters, the first on 15 January and the last on the 26 January. The final orbital period will be 7.6 hours.
All instruments have successfully been switched on, and have started to deliver data (except for the boom deployment of the radar which is planned for April, in accordance with the science planning of the mission).
