MAVEN cleared its last mission review today as NASA and contractor managers gave a “go” today at the Launch Readiness Review to proceed to launch Monday at 1:28 p.m. EST, the beginning of a 2-hour launch window for the Mars-bound spacecraft. The weather forecast for Monday remains at a 60 percent change of acceptable conditions at launch time.
Former Star Trek actor LeVar Burton shares MAVEN’s story. Burton has been a lifelong advocate of education through his many STEM initiatives and participation in educational programming. He is also known worldwide as Geordi LeForge, chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” as Kunta Kinte in the breakthrough mini-series “Roots” and beloved by generations of children as the host and producer of the “Reading Rainbow” television series.
Interviews with MAVEN’s scientific and launch teams detail the goals for the Mars-bound spacecraft and the years of work that went into building the spacecraft and then getting ready to launch it.
We’re one small but important step closer to Mars this morning after the launch team placed MAVEN on the top of the Atlas V rocket that will send the probe to the Red Planet. While most of the Cape Canaveral region was sleeping, a crew drove the MAVEN spacecraft from its processing hangar at Kennedy to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The trip began at 12:33 a.m. and ended at 2:59 a.m. The spacecraft is bolted inside the payload fairing that will protect it at the pad and during the first few minutes of ascent into space. The Atlas V was already stacked and waiting inside the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41 when MAVEN arrived. A crane built into the VIF hoisted MAVEN to the top of the rocket and workers began securing the link. Many more tests await the MAVEN spacecraft as engineers and technicians make sure the spacecraft and rocket are working together. Launch remains on track for Nov. 18 at 1:28 p.m. EST.
Hello from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida where the MAVEN spacecraft is undergoing careful preparations at the hands of engineers and technicians ahead of its launch to study the upper atmosphere and history of Mars. Adjacent to Kennedy, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, teams are readying a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket which will lift the MAVEN spacecraft off Earth and send it on a 10-month flight to the Red Planet. MAVEN will orbit Mars, not land on it, and collect data about the upper atmosphere of our closest planetary neighbor in unprecedented detail.
Launch is planned for Nov. 18 at 1:28 p.m. EST. We will provide a minute-by-minute account of the procedures on launch day from Hangar AE as the launch and mission teams get ready to begin this exciting mission!
We will cover the processing of MAVEN and its Atlas V launch vehicle and you can get more in-depth information about MAVEN here and about NASA’s Mars exploration program here.
