White House: Odds Of "ET" Are "Pretty High"

The U.S. government has no evidence of extraterrestrial life and “no credible information” to suggest a federal cover-up of any alien encounters on Earth, White House officials said in response to petitions imploring Washington to come clean.

But the launch later this month of the Mars Science Laboratory from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is one of several projects that could yield evidence of life or habitable planets elsewhere in the universe.

That's the word from the Obama Administration as NASA gears up for the Nov. 25 launch of the lab and its Curiosity rover, which will land on Mars n3ext August and search for signs of key chemical building blocks for life on Earth.

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ABOUT THE IMAGE: In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, technicians recently stowed the robotic arm on the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity. The rover's 10 science instruments are designed to search for evidence on whether Mars has had environments favorable to microbial life, including chemical ingredients for life. The spacecraft since has been moved to Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where it is scheduled to launch on an Atlas V rocket on Nov. 25. Photo credit: NASA/Charisse Nahser.