NASA delays launch of its next Mars rover as time runs out for takeoff

NASA is pushing back the launch of it next Mars rover, called Perseverance, by a week, due to a problem with the rocket that’s supposed to send the spacecraft to the Red Planet. The rover is now slated to launch no earlier than July 30th out of Cape Canaveral, Florida.

That puts the launch of Perseverance perilously close to the end of its limited launch window, which originally spanned from July 17th to August 11th. NASA and other space agencies only have a small window of time every two years to send spacecraft to Mars, when the Red Planet comes closest to Earth on its orbit around the Sun. NASA has already pushed back the launch a few times before, to July 20th and then to July 22nd, due to issues with the ground equipment that...

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