NASA Mars Rover Up Top, If NASA Can't Launch It In 15 Days From Set Date, Next Window Is 2022

NASA has confirmed that the Perseverance rover bound for Mars has been attached to the top of its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral.

NASA

With this, the NASA Perseverance Mars rover is all set to take off on its mission to the Red Planet, scheduled for liftoff on July 30, 2020.

Perseverance rover's Mars mission

NASA used a 60-ton hoist on the roof of the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 to lift the nose cone (where the NASA Perseverance Mars Rover is encased) to the top of the Atlas V rocket.

According to NASA on the Perseverance rover, everything went well during the wrapping and encasement of the nose cone of the Mars bound spaceship to protect it during the launch phase.

The payload fairing, or nose cone, containing the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover (Image: NASA)

In addition to attaching the Perseverance Mars rover payload to the Atlas V rocket, NASA engineers also made lasting physical and electrical connections between the booster engines and the spacecraft. With this, final pre-launch tests can now be conducted on the Atlas V rocket and NASA Perseverance Mars rover assembly.

With these developments, it seems like NASA Perseverance Mars rover is well on its schedule to let the Atlas V take to the skies on July 30. This, however, was not the first launch date and if not for this, NASA might be looking at a very narrow window to complete its launch.

NASA Perseverance rover's race against time to go to Mars

The Atlas V will leave the Vertical Integration Facility a good two days before its scheduled launch on July 30. Once launched, the payload is expected to reach Mars by February next year.

Among many of its mission targets, the Perseverance rover will look for past microbial life on Mars and sample rock and soil.

NASA Perseverance Mars Rover (Image: NASA)

The new launch date, however, comes after a delay of almost two weeks from the previous launch date of July 17. This was due to a contamination breach that caused delay in launch vehicle processing. With July 30 the new launch date, NASA now looks at a window spanning from 30 July to 15 August.

It is important that the Perseverance rover launch takes place before mid-August. This is because Earth and Mars will be in proper alignment till the middle of August. In case NASA misses this deadline, the Mars mission cannot be pursued until 2022.

A report mentions that the space agency will be facing an added expense of USD 500 million to the nearly USD 3 billion mission, if there is such a delay.

So it is crucial for NASA to launch the payload before August 15. With the present launch date, the space agency is well on schedule to land its Perseverance rover in Mars' Jezero Crater on 18 February 2021. Any further delay, however, will be cutting real close to the deadline for the billion of dollars and years of hard work at stake.