Technicians inside NASA Kennedy Space Center's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility have attached a lifting device to the Atlas V rocket's payload fairing.

Technicians inside NASA Kennedy Space Center's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility have attached a lifting device to the Atlas V rocket's payload fairing enclosing the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft. The fairing must be raised in order to be placed on a transporter for the move to Space Launch Complex 41.

MSL's components include a compact car-sized rover, Curiosity, which has 10 science instruments designed to search for evidence on whether Mars has had environments favorable to microbial life, including the chemical ingredients for life. The unique rover will use a laser to look inside rocks and release its gasses so that the rover’s spectrometer can analyze and send the data back to Earth. Launch of MSL aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is planned for Nov. 25 from Space Launch Complex-41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett