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Mission record

2001 Mars Odyssey

Also known as Mars Odyssey, Mars Surveyor 2001 Orbiter, 2001MarsOdyssey

NASA · Launched

Explore trajectory

Active · Active

NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey is an active Mars orbiter that maps surface composition and mineralogy, measures the radiation environment, and relays communications from surface missions. It arrived at Mars on 24 October 2001 and entered its near-circular polar mapping orbit after aerobraking.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Delta II 7925
Launch site
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Countries
United States
Mission types
Orbiter

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched on a Delta II 7925

    NASA's launch press kit specifies Delta II 7925 with nine strap-on solid-fuel motors and identifies Space Launch Complex 17. It gives the first launch opportunity as 11:02:22 a.m. EDT on April 7, 2001, which converts to 15:02:22 UTC. NSSDCA Spacewarn 570 independently identifies Mars Odyssey as 2001-014A and reports a 15:02 UT launch. Its separate 2001-013A designation belongs to Ekran-M 18.

    Earth

  2. Deployment

    Separated from the Delta II third stage

    Boeing reports separation 31 minutes after the 11:02 a.m. EDT launch, at 850 nautical miles altitude. The reported elapsed time is rounded to the minute and does not establish a state vector; it is not used as an exact trajectory boundary.

    Earth

  3. Milestone

    First spacecraft signal received at the Canberra DSN station

    NASA reports first signal reception at 11:55 a.m. Eastern, about 53 minutes after launch. This ground-reception event confirms early operations but provides no framed spacecraft position or velocity.

    Earth

  4. Orbit insertion

    Entered Mars capture orbit

    NSSDCA reports that Mars Odyssey attained Martian orbit on October 24, 2001. The JPL arrival press kit gives the insertion-burn interval as 02:26–02:45 UT in Earth-received time and states that radio signals took about eight minutes 30 seconds to reach Earth. The catalog retains the supported date but does not treat the received-time interval as the spacecraft burn epoch.

    Mars

  5. Milestone

    Settled into the polar science orbit after aerobraking

    JPL reported on January 30, 2002 that Odyssey had reached its mapping orbit after trim maneuvers on January 28 and 30. The final orbit was near-circular, polar and approximately 400 km in altitude; the date is retained at day precision.

    Mars

  6. Milestone

    Completed primary science mission and continued in extended operations

    NASA's mission page reports that Odyssey completed its primary science mission in August 2004 and continued in extended operations. The August month precision follows that source.

    Mars

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • 2001 Mars Odyssey · Orbiter

    Destinations: Mars

Trajectory record

Time-dependent navigation trajectory

Source states place the model at the selected time. Reconstructed flight, estimates, predictions and historical mission plans are identified by interval; gaps remain visible.

J2000 · Sun-centered display · positions interpolated between source states

Coverage: April 7, 2001 to December 27, 2026

Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.

  • 2001 Mars Odyssey: Mixed Odyssey trajectory: reconstructed and estimated historical navigation retained · reconstructed NAIF SPK through 2026-10-01T15:43:50.816Z · predicted JPL Horizons continuation from that cutoff through 2026-12-27 · prediction may change with future maneuvers or navigation updates · source gaps retained · April 7, 2001 to December 27, 2026

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through October 5, 2026