Mars launch: NASA sends Perseverance rover to space
The Perseverance rover and its Ingenuity helicopter are finally on the journey to Mars.
The spacecraft carrying the rover and helicopter successfully launched to Mars Thursday morning aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 7:50 a.m. ET.
The team in the control center at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed they received the spacecraft's signal shortly after 9 a.m. ET.
"This signifies that JPL's deep space network has locked on to the spacecraft, which is on its journey to Mars," said Omar Baez, launch manager at NASA's Launch Services Program.
The Deep Space Network is designed to communicate with spacecraft that are at a great distance from Earth, like the Voyager probes, which are tens of billions of miles away. As the spacecraft gets further away from Earth, the reception at the radio signals at the ground stations will improve.
The Perseverance Twitter account, managed by NASA's social team, shared, "I am healthy and on my way to Mars, but maybe too loud for the antennas on Earth while I'm so close. Ground stations are working to match my signal strength so that I can communicate clearly with my team."
After traveling through space for about seven months, Perseverance is scheduled to land at Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021.
The Mars 2020 mission launch occurs after nearly a decade of hard work and planning by thousands of engineers, scientists, and specialists at NASA centers across the country and their commercial partners.
(c) Space.com
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