On Friday, a European spacecraft orbiting Mars celebrated the 20th anniversary of its launch by sending its first livestream from the red planet to Earth. However, the transmission was occasionally disrupted by rainy weather at the deep space-relay antenna in Spain.
The European Space Agency broadcast the livestream with views courtesy of its Mars Express, which was launched by a Russian rocket from Kazakhstan in 2003. Each picture took nearly 17 minutes to reach Earth, which is nearly 200 million miles (300 million kilometers) away, and another minute to get through the ground stations.
Despite the interference, enough images made it through to delight the European space officials hosting the hourlong livestream. The initial views showed about one-third of Mars, which gradually grew bigger in the frames before shrinking again as the spacecraft circled the planet. White clouds could clearly be seen in some of the shots.
2023-06-03 22:00:04
Link from phys.org