Mars 2020 Perseverance Encapsulation

Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the handling fixture is moved away from the two halves of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V payload fairing on June 18, 2020. Inside the fairing is the agency’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. The rover is scheduled to launch on July 20, 2020, atop the Atlas V 541 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rover is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The rover’s seven instruments will search for habitable conditions in the ancient past and signs of past microbial life on Mars. The Launch Services Program at Kennedy is responsible for launch management.