Fla. The launch vehicle will boost the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution or MAVEN spacecraft to the Red Planet.

An Atlas V rocket is off loaded from the United Launch Alliance barge Delta Mariner that just arrived at Port Canaveral, Fla. The launch vehicle will boost the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, spacecraft to the Red Planet. The rocket will be transported to the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center, or ASOC, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to begin processing.

MAVEN is being prepared for its scheduled launch in November 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/ Dimitri Gerondidakis