Watch Live Now! NASA Probe Launching to Mars Today

An artist's depiction of NASA's MAVEN Mars orbiter flying high above the Martian surface. The probe will explore the planet's upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the sun and solar wind. (Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA's next Mars probe is scheduled to launch to the Red Planet today (Nov. 18), and you can watch it live online right now. NASA TV's broadcast of the MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft's run up to launch has started, and you can watch the live feed on SPACE.com.

MAVEN is set to launch atop an Atlas 5 rocket from here at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1:28 p.m. EST (1828 GMT). The live broadcast of the launch began at 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT). The probe will spend about 10 months en route to Mars, and once in orbit, the spacecraft will examine the planet's upper atmosphere to understand how the Red Planet lost most of its atmosphere to space over time. [NASA's MAVEN Mission to Mars (Photos)]

Visit SPACE.com for the latest MAVEN news, photos and videos. You can also follow MAVEN coverage through the Mission Status Center at SPACE.com's partner, Spaceflight Now.

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Miriam Kramer joined Space.com as a Staff Writer in December 2012. Since then, she has floated in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight, felt the pull of 4-Gs in a trainer aircraft and watched rockets soar into space from Florida and Virginia. She also served as Space.com's lead space entertainment reporter, and enjoys all aspects of space news, astronomy and commercial spaceflight. Miriam has also presented space stories during live interviews with Fox News and other TV and radio outlets. She originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee where she and her family would take trips to dark spots on the outskirts of town to watch meteor showers every year. She loves to travel and one day hopes to see the northern lights in person. Miriam is currently a space reporter with Axios, writing the Axios Space newsletter. You can follow Miriam on Twitter.

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