In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility workers attach the Phoenix Mars Lander spacecraft onto the upper stage booster.

In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers attach the Phoenix Mars Lander spacecraft onto the upper stage booster. Targeted for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Aug. 3, Phoenix will land in icy soils near the north polar permanent ice cap of Mars and explore the history of the water in these soils and any associated rocks, while monitoring polar climate. Landing on Mars is planned in May 2008 on arctic ground where a mission currently in orbit, Mars Odyssey, has detected high concentrations of ice just beneath the top layer of soil. NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis