NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for Maven Mission
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA has selected United Launch Services, LLC of Littleton, Colo., to launch the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft known as MAVEN. MAVEN will launch in November 2013 aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.The total cost value for the MAVEN launch service is approximately $187 million. This estimated cost includes the task ordered launch service for the Atlas plus additional services under other contracts for payload processing; launch vehicle integration; mission unique launch site ground support; and tracking, data and telemetry services.
MAVEN is a Mars orbiter that will greatly enhance our understanding of
Mars' climate history by providing a comprehensive picture of the
planet's upper atmosphere, ionosphere, solar energy drivers and atmospheric losses.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the
MAVEN project. MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the
University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and
Space Physics. The Launch Services Program at NASA's Kennedy Space
Center in Florida is responsible for launch vehicle program
management of the Atlas V launch services. United Launch Alliance
provides the launch services for United Launch Services.
For more information about MAVEN, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/maven
For more information about NASA and its missions, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov
Source: NASA
