An Update on NASA's MAVEN Mission

NASA News From the Fleet's Astronomer, Lisa Will

Some of you may have heard that NASA's MAVEN mission to Mars was halted by the government shutdown. MAVEN has a launch window of 20 days in late November/early December when the Earth and Mars are in an advantageous alignment. If MAVEN cannot launch during this window, the mission will be delayed until 2016, when the next appropriate alignment occurs.

Because of this specialized need, MAVEN has been granted an exception to the government shutdown rules and has been cleared to proceed with launch preparations. The mission website is down due to the shutdown, but you can follow this next exciting mission to Mars via Twitter as it prepares to launch: @MAVEN2Mars.