A member of the press team who worked on the Mars Mission, tells me the manoeuvre had to begin some more than 2,300km (1,430 miles) away from its intended periapse some 1,060km (662 miles) above Mars – the point where the orbit would be closest to Mars" gravitational attraction. The manoeuvre had a tolerance of plus or minus 300km (186 miles) – this, after a journey of nearly half a billion km. And after all this, the spacecraft would only be able to communicate for a few minutes before it went before the far side of Mars, lost to all communication for 15 minutes. For that time, McNabb says it was "Schrodinger"s spacecraft" – the endeavour both a success and a failure until mission control could confirm Hope had entered its orbit successfully.