To a great extent mission managers have given the spacecraft a clean bill of health.

Scientists and mission managers will continue to monitor the spectrometer's performance.

Weather concerns had forced mission managers to scrub on Thursday.

After returning a greeting from mission managers, he said, "It's going to be a great holiday."

Mission managers initially worried that they might have lost the rover entirely.

Mission managers announce that the launch is delayed to at least 18 July.

But once they rolled off their platforms and began work, mission managers knew that the vehicles might survive longer than 90 days.

Mission managers hoped to get the 115-foot-long array to fold itself back into its original container.

Mission managers are encouraged by the progress, saying the rover could be out of the dune in one to two weeks.

Mission managers have decided to forgo a launching attempt on Friday, when conditions are expected to be even worse.