An Air Force C-17 transport plane landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida last night with the first parts of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, a sophisticated rover slated for launch in November.
The rover's backshell and cruise stage were loaded aboard the plane in Los Angeles, which then made a stop in Denver to pick up the rover's heat shield.
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The rover itself and the system it will use to descend to the surface of Mars are due to arrive at the launch site in June. The rover, named Curiosity, is undergoing testing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"It arrives with some assembly required," NASA's George Diller tells Discovery News.
Curiosity is slated for launch between Nov. 25 and Dec. 18 aboard an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. After a nine-month flight, Curiosity is expected to land on Mars in August 2012 for a two-year mission to determine if the planet had the right conditions for life to evolve.
Image: Special delivery -- to Mars. Aeroshell for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory. Credit: Lockheed Martin
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