MSL's Atlas V Rocket Is Coming Together

The Atlas V delivery system that will take the NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover Curiosity to the Red Planet is currently being assembled in a Florida facility, at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS).

Engineers at the Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) are now mating the stages of this large rocket together, preparing for its takeoff later this year. A window opens between November 25 and December 18.

The rover itself undergoes its final preparations, and experts at NASA are quite pleased with the machine's performances. Curiosity is the size of a Mini Cooper, and it weighs nearly a ton. It will be deployed in the surface of Mars via the largest parachute ever sent to outer space.

However, it has to get there first, and it will be this Atlas V rocket's job to place MSL on a correct orbit. Knowing full-well that the orbiter took more than $2.5 billion to build, engineers are working extra carefully to assemble the delivery system seamlessly, Universe Today reports.