CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A robotic dirt and ice digger rocketed toward Mars on Saturday, beginning a 422 million-mile journey that NASA hopes will culminate next spring in the first ever landing within the red planet's Arctic Circle.

The Phoenix Mars Lander blasted off before dawn, precisely on time, hurtling through the clear moonlit sky aboard an unmanned Delta rocket. The rocket was easily visible for five minutes, a bright orange speck in a spray of stars.

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Aug04/0,4670,PhoenixMars,00.html
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/phoenix_water.html
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/