spacetoday.net: MAVEN enters Mars orbit

Posted: Mon, Sep 22, 2014, 9:32 AM ET (1332 GMT)
MAVEN spacecraft illustration (NASA)

NASA's MAVEN Mars spacecraft, on a mission to understand what happened to the Martian atmosphere, entered orbit around Mars Sunday night as planned. The spacecraft performed a 34-minute burn to place the spacecraft into an elliptical capture orbit around the planet, with confirmation of the maneuver's success arriving at Earth at around 10:30 pm EDT Sunday (0230 GMT Monday). MAVEN will perform several maneuvers to lower itself into its planned orbit, with regular science operations scheduled to begin in November. MAVEN, launched last November, will study the planet's upper atmosphere in an effort to understand what happened to the water the planet had early in its history, and how the planet's atmosphere has evolved since then.