Mars 2020 rover and heat shield
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is seen here about to be mated with its heat shield during pre-launch preparations at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA officials said June 17 they are confident the mission will launch this summer.

NASA officials say they’re confident that the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission will launch this summer amid the special measures the agency had to take to keep the mission on track during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Jeff Foust has more than a decade of experience writing about space policy, entrepreneurial ventures and regulatory affairs. In 2001, he established spacetoday.net to aggregate and summarize the day's space-related news stories. In 2003, he started The...