Nasa is heading to Mars after launching a rocket from Earth today.
The space agency is sending its Perseverance rover – its strongest and smartest explorer visitor to the surface yet – to look for evidence of ancient life on the Martian surface.
The rover is carrying a helicopter that will make the first ever flight on another planet, as well as a variety of tools that will allow it to explore the surface looking for evidence of past alien activity.
The rocket is the third to take off for Mars this month, as space agencies leap through the brief window in which the planets align to allow an efficient trip to the Red Planet. The UAE launched its Hope orbiter last week, followed by the Chinese Questions to Heaven spacecraft shortly after.
How to watch live stream as Nasa goes to Mars
Stream will be hosted on YouTube, as well as by space agencies and other organisations
Nasa is going to Mars in search of alien life today
The IndependentPerseverance rover will roam the surface in search of evidence of ancient inhabitants
What time is Nasa's Mars launch today?
The IndependentRocket must liftoff within specific window – or be forced to wait for more than two yearsIt's a busy week for Nasa. Today is the Mars launch – then, with barely a moment to rest, Sunday will see two astronauts splash down off the Florida coast.
Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will arrive in the Crew Dragon spacecraft, called Endeavour, which was designed and built by SpaceX.
The duo will close out a mission that was designed to test SpaceX's human spaceflight system, including launch, docking, splashdown, and recovery operations, Nasa said.
You can read more about that launch – the last time Nasa conducted one on this scale – here.
SpaceX shoots Nasa astronauts into space in historic mission
SpaceX has sent Nasa astronauts into space in a historic mission. The Falcon 9 rocket carried the astronauts into orbit in SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule. Minutes after launch, the rocket detached and landed safely on a drone ship while the capsule continued to carry the astronauts on to the International Space Station.
A doctor from Nazi Germany and the complicated history of 'Mars Jars'
The Mars Jar is a way of replicating Mars here on earth to see how living things react to those conditions, writes Sarah Scoles. But the history of these jars is much more complicated than it seems and is wrapped up in the military
The Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter is scheduled to sing the Ray Charles version of "America The Beautiful" during the U.S. space agency's broadcast of the countdown to the launch of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Porter said he will perform from his living room in Bakersfield, California because of the coronavirus pandemic. His record label said Porter was invited after NASA officials heard "Concorde."
"I wrote the song when I was on an airplane thinking about the idea of ascension, both in the body but in the mind as well. Flying into the stratosphere," Porter told Reuters. "And so, anyway, NASA caught wind of it and they were interested... in partnering in the release of the song and the release of the video."
In the "Concorde" music video, Porter is dressed as an astronaut and appears opposite his young son, Demyan.
"When I'm floating around in the galaxy, hanging out with the stars, the sweetest thing to do is to come back down, to drop down to and to be on the soil and to be with your loved ones. And that's what the song is about," Porter said.
Porter said he has been a spaceflight fan since watching NASA's first shuttle launch in 1981. He remembers as a 9 year old being concerned about how the astronauts would return to Earth and making sure they landed back at Edwards Air Force Base, not far from his childhood home.
The robotic rover is intended to study Martian geology and seek signs of ancient microbial life.
Nasa reveals plans to fly a helicopter on Mars
Space agency says experimental flight test is 'unlike anything ever attempted'Please allow a moment for the live blog to load.
