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JPL's launch vehicle manager Arden Acord, a man in his mid-forties with gray hair and gray beard and goatee, wears a dark colored hat and huge smile as he stands next to the large, brightly-decorated, protective fairing for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.  The fairing bears the red, white and blue circular NASA logo as well as the colorful depiction of the spacecraft at work around Mars.  The fairing is attached to a rig that will lift it up to be attached to the top of the Atlas V rocket that will launch it to Mars.  Behind Acord and the fairing is the Atlas V rocket in its extremely tall Vertical Integration Facility.
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Last Stop: Launch Pad

JPL launch vehicle manager Arden Acord gives the "thumbs up" as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reaches its final Earth-bound destination - Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

In the pre-dawn hours of Thursday, July 28th, the spacecraft was transported inside its Atlas four-meter (13-foot) fairing to the Atlas Vertical Integration Facility at the launch pad.

In the background is Atlas V-401, tail number AV-007 stacked in the facility awaiting hoisting of the fairing and orbiter on top.

At the present time, the spacecraft is mechanically mated to the Centaur upper stage and electrical connections are underway.

Credit: NASA

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