As NASA's Curiosity rover celebrates one year on Mars, the space agency has begun final preparations for the launch of its next Red Planet mission later this year, Space.com reports.

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft, or MAVEN, arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Aug 2, just three days before the one-year anniversary of Curiosity's dramatic Mars landing.

MAVEN is now sitting in a cleanroom, where engineers are testing and fueling the orbiter ahead of its planned Nov 18 launch from Kennedy toward the Red Planet.