Mars Mission Components Delivered to Florida

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Feature: 2011-143 May 13, 2011

Mars Mission Components Delivered to Florida

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-143&cid=release_2011-143

An Air Force C-17 transport plane delivered the heat shield, back shell and cruise
stage of the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft to NASA's Kennedy Space Center,
Fla., on May 12, 2011. The heat shield and back shell together form the aeroshell,
which will encapsulate the mission's rover and descent stage. The cruise stage will
perform critical communication and navigation functions during the flight from Earth to
Mars.

The mission will launch in late 2011 and deliver its rover, Curiosity, to the surface of
Mars in August 2012. For more information about this week's delivery of flight system
components, see
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/news/press_releases/2011/0513_ss_msl.html .

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science
Mission Directorate, Washington. More information about the Mars Science Laboratory
is available online at http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .

A live feed of Curiosity being built and tested in a clean room at JPL, with a chat
feature available most days, is online at: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl . You can also
follow the mission on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MarsCuriosity and Twitter
@MarsCuriosity .

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