MAVEN Status Update: Nov. 25, 2013

Monitors at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory display the first confirmation of MAVEN telemetry received by the Deep Space Network in Canberra, Australia (shown here as "MVN"). (Courtesy NASA/JPL) — Monitors at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory display the first confirmation of MAVEN telemetry received by the Deep Space Network in Canberra, Australia (shown here as “MVN”). (Courtesy NASA/JPL)

After a successful launch on Nov. 18, MAVEN operations are going smoothly with all spacecraft systems healthy. MAVEN uses 24-hour Deep Space Network communications coverage and all communication events have been nominal.

The mission is now in its early cruise mission phase and as of November 25, the spacecraft is approximately 1.39 million miles (2.24 million kilometers) from Earth. MAVEN’s current Sun-centered speed is 73,497 mph. The next big milestone for the team is a planned trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) on Dec. 3, followed by the power up of the eight science instruments between Dec. 4 and Dec. 10.

“Thus far the MAVEN spacecraft has flown and operated as we had all hoped and planned,” said David F. Mitchell, MAVEN project manager. “There are some big events coming up in the days ahead but I couldn’t be more pleased with how the journey has started.”

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