MAVEN at Mars, Artist's Concept
This artist's concept depicts NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft near Mars.
NASA will host a news briefing at 2 p.m. EDT Monday, Oct. 28, to discuss the upcoming launch of the agency's next mission to Mars and the first devoted to understanding the upper atmosphere of the Red Planet.

The briefing on the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission will take place at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St. SW in Washington, and air live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

MAVEN is scheduled to launch at 1:28 p.m. EST Nov. 18 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. MAVEN's data will be used to study the history and change of Mars' atmosphere, climate, and planetary habitability.

Briefing participants are:

- John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division, Headquarters
- Lisa May, MAVEN program executive, Headquarters
- Kelly Fast, MAVEN program scientist, Headquarters
- Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator, University of Colorado Boulder Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
- David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Journalists unable to attend in person may ask questions from participating NASA locations, join by phone, or send questions via Twitter using the hashtag #askNASA. To participate by phone, reporters must contact Steve Cole at stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov with their media affiliation by 1 p.m. Monday.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv.

For more information about the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/maven and http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/.

M13-162

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Nancy Neal-Jones
Goddard Space Flight Center. Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-0039
nancy.n.jones@nasa.gov