Sunshine Drapes Atlas V Rocket

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A web of shadows stretches across the 197-foot-tall United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket as the early morning sun shines through a metal lightning mast (left) at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Atop the rocket is NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), enclosed in its payload fairing. The rocket rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility at 8 a.m. EST and arrived at the pad at 8:40 a.m. Liftoff is planned during a launch window which extends from 10:02 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. EST on Nov. 26. MSL's components include a car-sized rover, Curiosity, which has 10 science instruments designed to search for signs of life, including methane, and help determine if the gas is from a biological or geological source.

More information about Curiosity is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/msl or http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl.