KSC-2013-4022

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