A science lab that will carry a large rover to the surface of Mars will be launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket in the fall of 2009, NASA officials said today.In a deal valued at nearly $200 million, Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services Inc. will send up the Mars lab from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The firm, fixed-price contract for $194.7 million was awarded by Kennedy Space Center, which operates a NASA directorate that oversees expendable launch vehicle services for agency space science and planetary spacecraft.
The Mars Science Laboratory will be the most advanced spacecraft the United States ever has launched to the red planet. The six-wheeled rover hitching a ride with it will explore the surface of Mars for two years. Its mission: to examine sites where water and other building blocks of life might exist.
A NASA Mission Fact Sheet is here: .mars-science-laboratory.pdf
Image note: Click to enlarge the Lockheed Martin photo of an Atlas 5 blasting off from Cape Canaveral in February. The rocket launched a commericial communications satellite into orbit
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