Blogs

Take a look at the rollout of the Atlas V rocket carrying MAVEN from the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

MAVEN’s launch team began today’s countdown on schedule at 6:28 a.m. Managers from NASA and United Launch Alliance are overseeing today’s preparations and launch of the MAVEN spacecraft to Mars atop an Atlas V-401 and Centaur upper stage. Liftoff remains on schedule for 1:28 p.m. EST, the start of a 2-hour launch window. Our continuous countdown …

Diapason Experiment:  Flight Engineer (FE)-5 Mastracchio set up and powered on the Diapason instrument for the final test run. This experiment studies nano-particle migration and capture achieved by very small thermal gradients. The particle size range allows the monitoring of combustion-generated pollution and the identification of atmospheric contaminants on-board ISS. Ocular Health (OH) Measurements: FE-6 …

The Atlas V rocket with MAVEN aboard will be rolled from the Vertical Integration Facility or VIF, pictured with the Atlas V inside, to the launch pad at Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday morning. Technicians will connect a battery of umbilicals and make the other connections necessary to set …

From installing the solar arrays and instruments to covering the high-gain antenna and packaging the spacecraft inside its payload fairing – not to mention all the intensive testing involved – see in about two minutes what took MAVEN engineers months of careful, precise work to accomplish before the spacecraft is sent into space.

There will be a prelaunch press conference for MAVEN at 1 p.m. EST today on NASA TV. Participants are Geoffrey Yoder, NASA deputy associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate; Omar Baez, NASA launch director; Vernon Thorp, United Launch Alliance’s program manager for NASA missions; David Mitchell, NASA’s MAVEN project manager; Guy Beutelschies, Lockheed Martin’s MAVEN project manager; and Clay Flinn, launch weather officer, …

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 …

Selectable Optical Diagnostics Instrument (SODI) Experiment Preparation:  Flight Engineer (FE)-3 Hopkins reviewed SODI setup procedures, activated the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) facility and set up the SODI core hardware and experiment-specific hardware in the MSG Work Volume.  These activities allow performance of an optical checkout prior to the installation of the SODI Diffusion Coefficient in …

Controllers turned on the MAVEN spacecraft today as the spacecraft and the Atlas V rocket that will send it to Mars continue on track for launch Monday at 1:28 p.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The NASA and United Launch Alliance launch teams performed a successful …

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” …