MAVEN, Atlas V Countdown Coverage Starts Now!

Good morning from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida where the weather is warm, the sky is blue with some thin cloud streaks and MAVEN stands atop an Atlas V rocket poised to head to Mars! The launch teams here report everything is on track for a liftoff at 1:28 p.m. EST. If some matter comes up, they have until 3:28 p.m. to make today’s launch window before they’d have to stand down and try again tomorrow. At the moment, though, no one is thinking about a delay. Instead they are focused on preparing the rocket for fuel and propellant loading and keeping tabs on the spacecraft’s health.

Meteorologists will watch those clouds closely to see if they form into something more meaningful than wispy streaks. The forecast remains 60 percent chance of acceptable conditions at launch time.

We’ll bring you all the countdown milestones as they occur during the next 2 1/2 hours and introduce you to MAVEN, an 11.4-foot-tall, 90-inch-wide spacecraft loaded with the instruments scientists hope will tell them what became of Mars’ ancient atmosphere, including the fate of its liquid water.

So stick with us this morning and we’ll keep you up-to-date with all the happenings out at Space Launch Complex-41 as MAVEN goes through its last steps before space.