Watch Mars Science Lab/Curiosity Rover Launch Live

**update** Here is video of the launch:

Come August of next year, there will be seven minutes of terror when the vehicle reaches Mars. I hope to be able to provide you with live coverage of that event as well.



The Mars Scie3nce Lab is scheduled to launch between 10.02 and 11.45am Eastern Time today. I have embedded video players for you to watch the launch live.


JPL animation of the journey and landing of the Mars Science Lab.

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The Mars Science Laboratory is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration mission with the aim to land and operate a rover named Curiosity on the surface of Mars. The MSL is scheduled to launch November 26, 2011 (between 10:02 am - 11:45 am EST/usa) and to land on Mars at Gale Crater between August 6 and August 20, 2012. It will attempt to perform the first-ever precision landing on Mars. The rover Curiosity will help assess Mars' habitability, that is, whether Mars is, or ever was an environment able to support microbial life. It will also analyze samples scooped up from the soil and drilled powders from rocks.


Curiosity will be five times as large, and carry more than ten times the mass of scientific instruments as the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit or Opportunity. The MSL rover Curiosity will be launched by an Atlas V 541 rocket and will be expected to operate for at least 1 Martian year (668 Martian sols/686 Earth days) as it explores with greater range than any previous Mars rover.


Mars Science Laboratory mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of Mars, and is a project managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of California Institute of Technology for NASA. The total cost of the MSL project is about US$2.5 billion.

Source: Wikipedia

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The Mars Science Lab is scheduled to launch today and I have embedded some video players for you to watch it on (after the launch, I will replace them with video of the launch so that you may return anytime and re-watch the launch).







NASA TV HD Player (click here to watch on a mobile device)


Curiosity Cam 5 a.m. PT (8 a.m. ET): - NASA's Mars Curiosity Launch NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft with the Curiosity rover is set to launch to the planet Mars aboard an Atlas V rocket on Nov. 26, 2011 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The one hour and 43 minute launch window opens at 7:02 a.m. PST (10:02 a.m. EST).
Coverage of the launch will begin at 5 a.m. PST (8 a.m. EST) and conclude after spacecraft separation from the Atlas V occurs 53 minutes, 49 seconds after launch.

Follow the Curiosity rover on Twitter (@MarsCuriosity) and Facebook. Other places for launch coverage: NASA Launch Blog