26 May 2008 ESA completed a key step in its ongoing support to NASA's Phoenix mission, when signals from the Phoenix Mars lander recorded by Mars Express were successfully received at ESA's Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany. NASA has just made the first few images available.
The signals from Phoenix were monitored by Mars Express between 01:21 - 01:47 CEST on 26 May during the lander's critical entry, descent and landing (EDL) phase. They were received by the European spacecraft via the Mars Express Lander Communications (MELACOM) system.
For more images returned by Phoenix, please see The University of Arizona's Phoenix image gallery.
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