NASA's MAVEN mission set off for Mars

November 19, 2013 01:59

US space agency NASA has launched its latest orbiter to Mars on the hunt for clues about why the Red Planet lost much of its atmosphere.

The probe MAVEN was launched on an Atlas V rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 18:28 GMT.

The 2.4-tonne spacecraft will spend about 10 months en route to the Red Planet, with arrival set for September 2014 and the science mission of the solar-wing paneled orbiter set to begin in November 2014.

MAVEN will study the planets upper atmosphere to understand how the Red Planet lost most of its atmosphere to space over time.

"MAVEN is the first spacecraft devoted to exploring and understanding the Martian upper atmosphere," the US space agency said.

"The spacecraft will investigate how the loss of Mars' atmosphere to space determined the history of water on the surface."

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