NASA’s Perseverance Rover Is All Packed Up and Ready for Launch
This week, engineers attached NASA s Perseverance rover to it s United Launch Alliance booster.
It will take the rover days to reach Mars where it will search for signs of life on the Red Planet.
Later this month or next, depending on the weather NASA s Perseverance rover will launch for the Red Planet from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This week, the spacecraft, which has been sealed away in its fairing, was attached to the rocket that will take it to Mars.
I have seen my fair share of spacecraft being lifted onto rockets, John McNamee, project manager for the Mars Perseverance rover mission at NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a NASA statement. But this one is special because there are so many people who contributed to this moment. To each one of them I want to say, we got here together, and we ll make it to Mars the same way.
On July , according to a NASA press release, the spacecraft—the aeroshell, cruise stage, and the descent stage—were attached to United Launch Alliance s Atlas V rocket. United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, designed the booster while Aerojet developed and manufactured it in Decatur, Alabama.
Earlier this month, a team of engineers lifted up the rocket s core stage—powered by both kerosene and liquid oxygen—to its vertical position at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station s Vertical Integration Facility at Launch Complex . They then attached four solid rocket boosters and the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel the Centaur upper stage.
A -ton hoist at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station s Vertical Integration Facility at Launch Complex lifted the spacecraft atop the rocket booster. A team of engineers then connected all physical and electrical systems, according to NASA. The next time they ll be separated will about minutes after its launch on July .
Next up: testing. The Rocket and the spacecraft will undergo further tests, both together and separately. Then, according to the current plan, on July , the rocket and spacecraft will take a -minute train ride , feet over to the launch pad.
NASA has delayed the launch of its long-awaited Mars rover multiple times already. The first delay was due to malfunctioning crane on the launch pad and the second delay was caused by a potential contamination issue, which was quickly resolved. A faulty liquid oxygen line sensor sparked the latest delay.
Orbital mechanics makes coordinating a launch to the Red Planet a tricky endeavor. Earth and Mars align only once every two years, so if Perseverance doesn t launch by August , the spacecraft could be sitting in a hangar for a really long delay.
