Posted: Fri, Jun 20, 2003, 11:23 AM ET (1523 GMT)
Japan's Nozomi Mars mission made its final flyby of the Earth on Thursday, but project officials admitted that technical problems with the spacecraft have reduced the chances it will be able to enter orbit around Mars. Nozomi completed a flyby of the Earth Thursday, the last of a series of gravity assist maneuvers designed to send the spacecraft towards Mars in early 2004. Project officials said that they won't know for about a week whether the gravity assist put the spacecraft on the proper trajectory. Nozomi (Japanese for "hope"), was launched in July 1998 and designed to arrive at Mars in October 1999. However, a thruster glitch during a December 1998 flyby forced spacecraft controllers to put the spacecraft on an alternate trajectory that will bring the spacecraft to Mars in January 2004. In addition, the spacecraft was hit by a solar flare last year, damaging electronics as well as a heating system designed to keep its thruster propellant from freezing. Officials are uncertain whether there will be enough thawed propellant to put Nozomi into orbit around Mars next year; one official told the BBC that he believes there is a 50 percent chance of fixing the spacecraft before it arrives at Mars.

Related Links:

•  AP article
•  Los Angeles Times article
•  BBC article