The aeroshell backshell for the Mars Perseverance rover is attached to the rocket-powered descent stage inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 29, 2020. The aeroshell will encapsulate and protect Perseverance and its descent stage during their deep space journey to Mars and during descent through the Martian atmosphere. It will reach the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021. Launch, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket, is targeted for summer 2020 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy is managing the launch.
Photographer NASA JPL/Christian Mangano
Album Mars_2020_Perseverance
Location PHSF
Date April 29, 2020