NASA associate administrator spoke about preparations for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN or MAVEN mission.

At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Compex-41, John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate along with other agency and contractor officials spoke to members of the news media about preparations for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, mission. Standing behind him are, from the left, David Mitchell, NASA's MAVEN project manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Amanda Mitskevich, NASA Launch Services Program manager, and Jim Sponnick, vice president of Atlas and Delta Programs for United Launch Alliance.

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