NASA launched its Phoenix Mars Lander successfully this morning Saturday from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The lander blasted off aboard a Delta II rocket at 5.36am (10.36am Irish time).
Phoenix had been scheduled to launch yesterday, but was postponed for 24 hours after bad weather prevented fuelling of the two-stage rocket.
It is due to complete its 680m kilometre journey to Mars on 25 May 2008.
The lander's assignment is to dig through the Martian soil and ice in the arctic region and use its onboard scientific instruments to analyse the samples it retrieves.
Many scientists believe signs of what may be ancient rivers and oceans on the surface of Mars show the planet may once have had some forms of life.
In 2002, the NASA probe Mars Odyssey detected quantities of hydrogen on the Martian surface, a sign there could be ice at a depth of less than one metre.
