NASA‘s Mars 2020 mission and the Perseverance rover has been in the works for a while, and now, finally, the mission has a launch date and it’s soon.

After the UAE’s Hope Mars Mission, there are two more missions that will be heading to the Red Planet, China’s Tianwen-1 and NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. While the launch date of Tianwen-1 has not been confirmed yet, NASA has revealed that it is targeting for a launch on July 30.

Initially, the launch window was placed between July 17 and August 11, but it was then updated to open on July 30.

NASA‘s Perseverance Mars rover has a launch window of approximately two hours on July 30 from the Space Launch Complex 41 in Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. While there are launch opportunities at an interval of five minutes in the duration of the launch window, NASA is targeting 7:50 AM EDT (5:20 PM on July 30) for lift-off.

After being launched aboard the Atlas V, the Mars 2020 spacecraft and the Perseverance Mars rover will then embark on a seven-month journey to Mars. The spacecraft and rover are then scheduled to land at the Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021.

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The Mars 2020 mission and Perseverance Mars rover augmented with a Helicopter, Ingenuity will look for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet. The rover will also collect rock and soil samples for a possible return mission to Earth.

The landing date for Mars 2020 mission spacecraft and Perseverance Mars rover will remain the same irrespective of the date and time the spacecraft launches within the launch window from July 30 till August 15.

On July 30, NASA will start the live coverage of the launch at 7 AM EDT(4:30 PM IST) on the NASA Live website and the official NASA live stream on YouTube.

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Image Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech