GREENBELT, Md., Sept. 22 (UPI) -- One of NASA's newest space probes has reached another milestone in its 10-month-old expedition. NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft, or MAVEN, has entered Mars' atmosphere and is now orbiting the Red Planet.
MAVEN was successfully inserted into Mars' orbit at 10:24 p.m. EDT on Sunday. Now, after a 442-million-mile interplanetary journey, MAVEN's true mission begins. The spacecraft is set to become the first to intimately observe and measure Mars' upper atmosphere.