MRO is the largest U.S. spacecraft to reach Mars since Viking 1
 and Viking 2 in 1976. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.)

 MRO lifts off from Cape Canaveral on August 12, 2005. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.)

 MRO follows an elliptical trajectory to Mars from August 12, 2005
 to March 10, 2006. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.)

 MRO's main engine fires to insert the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit on March 10, 2006. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.)

 MRO aerobrakes, repeatedly dipping into the upper
 atmosphere to lose velocity and circularize the orbit, from
 March through August 2006. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.)

 MRO uses the visible, infrared, and radio ranges of the
 electromagnetic spectrum to measure water in the atmosphere,
 on the surface, and below the surface. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.)

 Several of MRO's instruments have 5 to 20 times the resoluton on
 preceding  missions, providing unprecedented detail on Mars'
 geology and evolution. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.)

 MRO will study water occurring as polar ice, as clouds and vapor
 in the atmosphere, locked in minerals, and as ice or groundwater
 below the surface. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.)

 The volume of data returned by MRO will dwarf that of previous
 Mars missions. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.)