NASA Administrator Charles Bolden walks around the United Launch Alliance Atlas V first stage booster with United Launch Alliance Vice President of Mission operations Jim Sponnick, NASA Mission Manager for Launch Services Wanda Harding, NASA Senior Advisor Mike French, and White House Fellow Debra Kurshan, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011, at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The booster will help send NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover to Mars later this year. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, second from left, talks with United Launch Alliance Vice President of Mission operations Jim Sponnick, along with NASA Mission Manager for Launch Services Wanda Harding, left, White House Fellow Debra Kurshan, right, and NASA Senior Advisor Mike French, background, in front of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V first stage booster, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011, at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The booster will help send NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover to Mars later this year. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, second from left, talks with United Launch Alliance Vice President of Mission operations Jim Sponnick, along with NASA Mission Manager for Launch Services Wanda Harding, left, White House Fellow Debra Kurshan, right, and NASA Senior Advisor Mike French, background, in front of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V first stage booster, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011, at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The booster will help send NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover to Mars later this year. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 37, Lockheed Martin Orion Program Manager Mike Hawes facing the camera briefs United Launch Alliance Vice President of Atlas and Delta Programs Jim Sponnick, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana backs to camera.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 37, Lockheed Martin Orion Program Manager Mike Hawes facing the camera briefs United Launch Alliance Vice President of Atlas and Delta Programs Jim Sponnick, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana backs to camera. For more information, visit www.nasa.gov/orion. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Launch Services Program, or LSP, Program Manager Amanda Mitskevich, at far left, was presented with a framed commemorative collage of five United Launch Alliance, or ULA, mission photos in 2011 from Jim Sponnick, second from left, vice president of Mission Operations at ULA. Also at the presentation, were ULA Program Manager for NASA Missions Vern Thorp and LSP Deputy Program Manager Chuck Dovale. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Compex-41, John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate along with other agency and contractor officials spoke to members of the news media about preparations for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, mission. Standing behind him are, from the left, David Mitchell, NASA's MAVEN project manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Amanda Mitskevich, NASA Launch Services Program manager, and Jim Sponnick, vice president of Atlas and Delta Programs for United Launch Alliance. MAVEN is being prepared for its scheduled launch on Nov. 18, 2013 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Positioned in an orbit above the Red Planet, MAVEN will study the upper atmosphere of Mars in unprecedented detail. For more information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/main/index.html Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Compex-41, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, along with other agency and contractor officials spoke to members of the news media about preparations for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, mission. Standing behind him are, from the left, David Mitchell, NASA's MAVEN project manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, Amanda Mitskevich, NASA Launch Services Program manager, and Jim Sponnick, vice president of Atlas and Delta Programs for United Launch Alliance. MAVEN is being prepared for its scheduled launch on Nov. 18, 2013 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Positioned in an orbit above the Red Planet, MAVEN will study the upper atmosphere of Mars in unprecedented detail. For more information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/main/index.html Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Compex-41, an Atlas V rocket is poised to launch the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, spacecraft on a 10-month trip to the Red Planet. Agency and contractor officials spoke to members of the news media about preparations. They are, from the left, John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, David Mitchell, NASA's MAVEN project manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Amanda Mitskevich, NASA Launch Services Program manager, and Jim Sponnick, vice president of Atlas and Delta Programs for United Launch Alliance. MAVEN is being prepared for its scheduled launch on Nov. 18, 2013 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Positioned in an orbit above the Red Planet, MAVEN will study the upper atmosphere of Mars in unprecedented detail. For more information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/main/index.html Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett