The MAVEN mission launched on an Atlas V between November 18, 2013. Mars orbit insertion 
         occured on September 22, 2014, after a ten-month ballistic cruise phase. Following a 5-week 
         transition phase, the spacecraft entered Mars orbit at a 75 degree inclination, with a 4.5 
         hour period and periapsis altitude of 140-170 km (density corridor of 0.05-0.15 kg/km3). Over 
         a one-Earth-year period, periapsis precessed over a wide range of latitude and local time, 
         while MAVEN obtained detailed measurements of the upper atmosphere, ionosphere, planetary 
         corona, solar wind, interplanetary/Mars magnetic fields, solar EUV and solar energetic 
         particles, thus defining the interactions between the Sun and Mars. MAVEN explored down to 
         the homopause during a series of five 5-day ?deep dip? campaigns for which periapsis was 
         lowered to an atmospheric density of 2 kg/km3 (~125 km altitude) in order to sample the 
         transition from the collisional lower atmosphere to the collisionless upper atmosphere. 
         These five campaigns were interspersed though the mission to sample the subsolar region, the 
         dawn and dusk terminators, the anti-solar region, and the north pole.