Posted: Sun, Jan 8, 2012, 8:55 AM ET (1355 GMT)
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft is scheduled to perform a course correction this week that will put the probe on track for a landing on Mars this August. The maneuver, the biggest planned during the cruise phase of the mission, will be performed by the spacecraft's eight thrusters, firing in a sequence over nearly three hours starting at 6 pm EST (2300 GMT) on January 11. The thruster burn will change the spacecraft's speed by 5.5 meters per second, putting the spacecraft on course to land in Gale Crater on Mars in early August. MSL was successfully launched in November on an Atlas V rocket but intentionally put on course that, without the maneuver, would cause it to miss Mars. This prevents the spacecraft's upper stage, which was not subject to the same sterilization procedures as the spacecraft, from impacting Mars.

Related Links:

•  Spaceflight Now article
•  NASA/JPL press release