Centaur Oxygen Loading to Begin
Liquid oxygen will start flowing into the Centaur upper stage tank momentarily. The Centaur will take about 4,000 gallons of the super-cold liquid oxygen. After the Atlas V booster stage completes the first phase of launch, the Centaur’s single RL-10 engine will ignite, mixing the oxygen with liquid hydrogen to generate 22,300 pounds of thrust to lift MAVEN on its way to Mars.
