Launched AV038_MAVEN

Today we launched AV-038, an Atlas V rocket, carrying the MAVEN spacecraft, bound for Mars. MAVEN's mission is to probe the Martian upper atmosphere, in hopes of learning how Mars transformed from a warm, wet planet, into the barren world it is today. Flight time for the gas-sniffing sleuth is ten months, with arrival scheduled for next September.

MAVEN's next milestone is a December 3rd engine burn, to adjust the probe's path toward Mars, the first of four course correction maneuvers planned during the mission's 10-month cruise.

Ground controllers will start activating MAVEN's eight science instruments for tests this December, and some of the payloads will take data during the voyage to Mars. MAVEN's ultraviolet imaging spectrometer will observe comet ISON in December.

Once MAVEN is at Mars, the probe will drop into an operational elliptical orbit, and begin collecting scientific data in November 2014.

See the full story and more pics at SpaceFlightNow.com.