Liftoff!
MAVEN Spacecraft Launches to Mars...
At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 41 a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket stands ready to boost the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, spacecraft on a 10-month journey to the Red Planet.
NASA's MAVEN spacecraft is hoisted to the top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The move and hoisting operations mark another major milestone for the launch team as everything proceeds on schedule to launch.
MAVEN is the first spacecraft devoted to exploring and understanding the Martian upper atmosphere. It will orbit the planet in an elliptical orbit that allows it to pass through and sample the entire upper atmosphere on every orbit. The spacecraft will investigate how the loss of Mars' atmosphere to space determined the history of water on the surface.
A full moon rises behind the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with the MAVEN spacecraft on board. MAVEN is the second mission under NASA's Mars Scout Program.
Liftoff! NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft launches aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 1:28 p.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 18, 2013.
