United Launch Alliance
While the launch of American astronauts from American soil for the first time since 2011 won't take place for another two days (even though there's a 60% chance that there'll be another weather-related scrub this Saturday, and possibly on Sunday as well), preparations are being conducted at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida for the lift-off of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover this summer. The United Launch Alliance (ULA) has installed the Atlas V rocket (that will send the Mars 2020 rover to the Red Planet no sooner than July 17) on its mobile platform inside the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41. The Centaur upper stage and four solid rocket boosters that will complete the Atlas V's 541 configuration (the Atlas V that sent NASA's New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto and Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth in 2006, by comparison, used the 551 configuration—meaning that it had five solid rocket boosters strapped on) will be installed by next week.
United Launch Alliance
Even though SpaceX will be getting all of the launch-related attention due to the Demo-2 mission over the next few days, space enthusiasts should also be delighted that ULA is prepping to send another high-powered NASA mission to Mars in less than two months. Happy Thursday!
United Launch Alliance
United Launch Alliance
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