Maven Launch

UPDATE: The MAVEN spacecraft successfully lifted off this afternoon, and is now en route to Mars.

NASA is preparing for the Monday launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission, which will explore the Red Planet's upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the sun and solar wind.

The 37.5-foot MAVEN spacecraft is part of NASA's Mars Scout program, and it will provide details about the "history of Mars' atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability," NASA said.

MAVEN "will orbit Mars to explore how the sun may have stripped Mars of most of its atmosphere, turning a planet once possibly habitable to microbial life into a cold and barren desert world," NASA said. "MAVEN will be the first spacecraft mission dedicated to exploring the upper atmosphere of Mars."

Prior research has found evidence of water on Mars, but "scientists want to know what happened to the water and where the planet's thick atmosphere went," according to NASA.

The journey to Mars will take about 10 months, with MAVEN scheduled to go into orbit around Mars in Sept. 2014. It will take five weeks, however, until MAVEN gets into the correct position to start taking measurements.

MAVEN is the first Mars mission managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, in conjunction with the University of Colorado.

As of press time, the U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron predicted a 60 percent chance of favorable weather during the two-hour launch window. MAVEN is scheduled for liftoff at 1:28 p.m. ET from Florida's Cape Canaveral, but coverage will begin on NASA TV at 11 a.m. Check it out in the video below, and follow MAVEN via @MAVEN2Mars.

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