Written by By Laura George, CNN
The Airbus A340, which is more than 25 years old, has landed on Mars’ Mauna Loa mountain for the first time.
This video of the landing – recorded with the company’s Remote Video System – has arrived on Youtube
This is the 25th and final flight from the U.S. destined for Hawaii, and the last to take place from the island under commercial service
Commercial service had to cease when the U.S. suspended it, after ballistic missile tests, on Jan. 26, 1991, in the face of Russia’s former-communist neighbor.
A number of propeller aircraft have performed the two-hour flight out, and the crew were on the side of the desert looking for useful pieces of ice to scrape away, CNN found out.
Production manager for Airbus External Communications, Alexandre Pelcrouvix said: “You can’t be more celebratory. As far as we know, Mauna Loa is the most northern cone on Earth. The air traffic control is a little bit obsessed with it.”
It is hoped that the center of Earth, known as Iceberg Alley, could be reduced and changed, with new communication and transport links between the polar regions opening up.
“In five years, 30 years I think we will see Earth be much more connected,” Pelcrouvix said.