Launch of Spirit

Spirit was one of two NASA rovers sent to Mars in 2003 as part of the Mars Exploration Rover mission, together with its twin Opportunity. It was launched in June 2003 on a Delta II rocket and landed in January 2004 in Gusev Crater, a basin that scientists believed might once have held a lake. Designed to work for about three months, it kept operating for years, sending back panoramic images and studying rocks and soil. It found evidence of past water and hot spring or steam activity, including bright silica-rich soil near a feature called Home Plate. In 2009 it became stuck in soft sand, and it stopped communicating in March 2010.

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