With its launch just over three months away, NASA’s Perseverance rover is undergoing final critical pre-launch testing and checkouts at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The series of verification and validation activities not only occurred on the rover itself but also on the helicopter it will take with it to the Red Planet.
Presently, all remains on track for a scheduled launch on 17 July 2020 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket from SLC-41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, at roughly 09:00 EDT (13:00 UTC).
A launch on that day would result in a landing on Mars on 18 February 2021.