MAVEN: First ‘walk-in’ maneuver successful

On February 10, MAVEN carried out its first walk-in maneuver of the current “deep-dip” campaign. This lowered the periapsis of the MAVEN spacecraft about 20 km to an altitude of about 133 km. The campaign will continue tomorrow with another periapsis-lowering maneuver, designed to insert the spacecraft into the target density corridor. [More on the deep-dip campaign here and here.]