David F. Mitchell, MAVEN Project Manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Everything is set for MAVEN’s arrival at Mars tonight. All spacecraft systems are operating nominally. MAVEN is right on track without the need for any further trajectory correction maneuvers.
Tonight MAVEN will slew (turn) to point the main engines in the direction of travel and fire for about 33 minutes in order to slow down the spacecraft enough to “capture” into Mars orbit. Although we have direct line of sight of MAVEN during the entire burn sequence, the observed data back on Earth will actually be viewed 12.5 minutes after the events occur because of the distance between Earth and Mars.
Live Television Coverage of the MAVEN MOI Event will occur tonight from 9:30 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. EDT. The Post-MOI Press Conference will occur approximately 2 hours after MOI.
These events can be watched on NASA TV or streamed online at: www.nasa.gov/ntv
Go MAVEN for Mars Orbit Insertion!
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