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Payload Fairing
The spacecraft rides into the sky inside a protective payload fairing atop the Centaur stage. With the payload fairing on top, the vehicle stands approximately 191 feet (58 meters) tall when it is ready for launch.
Atlas V-541 Examples from NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission
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Hoisting NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Onto Its Atlas V
Employees at Space Launch Complex 41 of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., keep watch as the payload fairing containing NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is lifted up the side of the Vertical Integration Facility on Nov. 3, 2011.
November 10, 2011
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Closing the Fairings
In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sections of an Atlas V rocket payload fairing obscure NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) from view as they close in around it.
October 25, 2011
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Payload Fairing Upright
In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a section of the Atlas V payload fairing for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission hangs vertically from the ceiling.
October 6, 2011
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Curiosity's Rocket Fairing
In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the fairing acoustic protection (FAP) system lining the inside of the Atlas V payload fairing for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission comes into view as the fairing is lifted into a vertical position.
October 6, 2011
The major elements of the Atlas V-541 rocket
that will be used for the Mars 2020 mission are:
