Mars Spacecraft Not Impacted by Near Miss

A very close fly-by of a comet over the weekend did not affect the operations of NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft.  It has been conducting research of the Red Planet since its arrival October 24, 2001.

The comet known as  C/2013 A1 Siding Spring flew by Mars yesterday afternoon at a distance of 88,000 miles - about a third of the distance between Earth and its moon.

NASA was concerned the Odyssey spacecraft could be affected by high-velocity dust particles in the comet's tail and took evasive action in August.

NASA hopes to have images of the near-miss later this week.