NASA Administrator Charles Bolden is available for live satellite interviews from 6-8 a.m. EST Monday, Nov. 18, the morning of launch for the agency’s next mission to Mars. The interviews will be carried live on NASA Television.

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 1:28 p.m. on a 10-month journey to the Red Planet. MAVEN is the first spacecraft devoted to exploring and understanding the Martian upper atmosphere. It will take critical measurements of the Martian upper atmosphere to help scientists understand climate change over the planet’s history.

Bolden, who will be at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center — just a few miles from MAVEN’s launch pad — can talk about the importance of this mission, how it fits into the agency’s exploration priorities, including sending astronauts to Mars in the 2030s.

To participate in the live satellite interviews, reporters should contact Guy Noffsinger at NASA Headquarters in Washington at 310-386-0972 (cell) no later than 4 p.m. Sunday.

For more information about MAVEN, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/MAVEN

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For information about NASA’s programs and missions, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov