The US space agency NASA Saturday rolled out to the  launching pad at Cap Canaveral, Florida, the Atlas 5 rocket, which will blast off  Monday for Mars carrying the MAVEN spacecraft, which will study the atmosphere of  that planet.

 

 The rocket, 57.3 metres long, is scheduled to take off from Florida Monday at 1:28 p.m. 

 

 Meteorologists point to a 60 percent probability of favourable weather conditions  for the rocket launch on that day and hour.

 

 The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft will travel 10 months  through space to an orbit around the red planet, and will then collect data to  determine how and why it became the cold desert it is today.

 

 Research up to now has shown that Mars was once a planet with water but the  influence of the sun and other factors caused it to lose its atmosphere.