We’re on our way to Mars AGAIN! MAVEN spacecraft launched today

And away we go!

Nasa has had a very good, by-the-book launch of their Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN or MAVEN spacecraft.

This craft is the second in the Mars Scout Program, a program designed to send small, low cost robotic probes to the red planet. The first mission was the Phoenix lander to Mars’ northern ice cap. MAVEN’s mission is to study the upper atmosphere of Mars in hopes of determining what caused the planet to lose it’s thick, wet atmosphere to become the mostly dry, desert planet we know today.

MAVEN’s journey from Earth took just under an hour aboard an Atlas lift vehicle, and once separated, her trip will take 10 months to reach Mars, making her scheduled arrival in September of 2014.

You can follow the mission blog, and any coverage they have via NASA TV