NASA Selects ULA To Launch Mars 2020 Rover Atop An Atlas V 541 Vehicle In July 2020

Science Jeanette Walsh
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As part of efforts set for the launch of a flagship mission to Mars, NASA has selected United Launch Alliance (ULA) for assistance. While aiming for liftoff in July 2020, the contract to launch the Mars 2020 rover has already been awarded to ULA. This was recently announced by the agency.

The company is justifiably proud of its numerous achievements in providing successful launch services for NASA’s missions to the Red Planet. According to Laura Maginnis, ULA’s vice president of Custom Services, ULA is honored to be selected again by the agency for a robotic science rover to Mars. A mission she considers to be “tremendously exciting.”

While supporting 17 successful missions for over half a century, ULA has been responsible for almost every U.S. spacecraft to the Red Planet including the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, as well as Mars Science Lab. For quite a long time now, ULA’s dependable Atlas V has been a favored choice for many of the nation’s exploration, science, commercial and national security payloads.

Under the NASA Launch Services contract, Mars 2020 will be launched atop an Atlas V 541 vehicle via competitive procurement. Its 541 configurations include a single RL10 engine for the Centaur stage, 4 supplemental solid rocket motors, and 5-meter payload fairing. The rover will be designed with the ability to collect rock and soil samples which will be stored in sealed tubes for a potential return mission to earth in the future.

During surface operations and during the “entry, descent and landing” (EDL) phase, it is hoped that engineers and scientist would find acoustic data. Mars 2020 will be outfitted with microphones, just as scientists are looking to hear sounds from Mars for the first time.