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Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) is a space probe designed to study the Martian atmosphere while orbiting Mars. Mission goals include determining how the Martian atmosphere and water, presumed to have once been substantial, were lost over time.

MAVEN was successfully launched aboard an Atlas V launch vehicle at the beginning of the first launch window on November 18, 2013. Following the first engine burn of the Centaur second stage, the vehicle coasted in low-Earth orbit for 27 minutes before a second Centaur burn of five minutes to insert it into a heliocentric Mars transit orbit. On September 22, 2014, the plan is for MAVEN to be inserted into an orbit around Mars: an areocentric elliptic orbit 6,200 km (3,900 mi) by 150 km (93 mi) above Mars\’ surface. The principal investigator for the spacecraft is Bruce Jakosky of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The mission was spawned by NASA\’s Mars Scout Program, which, although discontinued in 2010, yielded Phoenix, MAVEN, and numerous missions\’ studies. Mars Scout missions target a cost of less than US$485 million, not including launch services, which cost approximately $187 million.

On September 15, 2008 NASA announced that it had selected MAVEN to be the Mars Scout 2013 mission. There was one other finalist and eight other proposals that were competing against MAVEN. On August 2, 2013, the MAVEN spacecraft arrived at Kennedy Space Center Florida to begin launch preparations. NASA scheduled the launch of MAVEN from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on November 18, 2013, using an Atlas V 401 rocket. The probe is expected to arrive in Mars\’ orbit in September 2014, at approximately the same time as India\’s Mars Orbiter Mission.

Source: Wikipedia

A Russian Ministry of Defense satellite was placed into orbit by a Proton-M launch vehicle. Proton-M lifted off from Baikonur on November 12, 2013.

NASA dixit:

“Expedition 37 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Luca Parmitano landed safely on the steppe of Kazakhstan on November 11, local time. The trio completed 166 days in space since launching in late May. Returning to Earth with the crew was the Olympic torch for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The torch was delivered to the station November 7 for its brief stay by Mikhail Tyurin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA and Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.”

NASA dixit:

“The Soyuz spacecraft and its booster were moved to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a railcar November 5 for final preparations before launch to the International Space Station on November 7. The Soyuz TMA-11M carried Expedition 38/39 Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of the Russian Federal Space Agency, NASA Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio and Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to the space station.”

Credit: NASA / Roscosmos

NASA dixit:

“The Russian Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft, with Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency, NASA Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Luca Parmitano aboard, changed parking spaces at the International Space Station November 1. The crew undocked the vehicle from the Rassvet module on the Earth-facing side of the Russian segment of the complex and redocked it 20 minutes later at the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module. The maneuver opened the Rassvet port for the November 7 arrival of three new crew members for station operations. Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano will depart the station in the Soyuz TMA-09M on November 10, for a landing on November 11 on the steppe of Kazakhstan.”

Credit: NASA

On October 25, 2013, a Proton-M/Breeze-M launch vehicle lifted off from Launch Complex Area 200, Baikonur, with the telecommunications satellite Sirius FM-6.

Credit: Roscosmos

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