NASA Spacecraft Launching Monday Will Probe Mars Atmosphere Mystery

From Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News:

NASA's newest Mars probe is set to launch Monday (Nov. 18), on a mission to help figure out how the Red Planet shifted from a warm and wet world long ago to the cold, dry place we know today. The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN spacecraft, or MAVEN for short, is scheduled to lift off atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Monday at 1:28 p.m. EST (1828 GMT). After a 10-month cruise through deep space, MAVEN will start studying the Red Planet from orbit, seeking clues about how Mars lost most of its atmosphere in the ancient past.

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