Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility poses with Bruck Jakosky of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.

Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Dr. Ellen Stofan, NASA's chief scientist, poses with Bruck Jakosky of the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. He is the principal investigator for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, mission. The MAVEN spacecraft can be seen through the window following encapsulation in its payload fairing.

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