The Mars Rover launch was delayed July 30

NASA and the United Launch Alliance have pushed NASA and the United Launch Alliance to delay the agency's 2.4 billion Mars rover launch.

The July 30 move, which is already running five days late due to problems, means about two weeks of damage to the planet's launch window that will close in mid-August. The last launch opportunity, originally announced, was August 5, but it was previously extended to August 11 and has now been extended to August 15, and slightly longer.

However, NASA must have more than two weeks to fly off the ground before the Earth and Mars travel very far from each other. Although problems arise from coronavirus restrictions, engineers are confident that the rover can be sent on its way.

But the stakes. If the window is strongly missed due to technical problems, bad weather, or some combination of factors, the flight will be delayed for two years, while Earth and Mars will be in a favorable position in their orbits around the Sun.

"When you talk about Earth and Mars being on the sun, it happens once every 26 months," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told reporters during a June 17 mission preview teleconference. "So it's very expensive. If we had to take it consistently and store it back in two years, it would have cost half a billion dollars."

The aircraft, which was originally scheduled for launch on July 17, had problems with ground equipment on July 20 and July 22, when engineers had problems circulating the spacecraft in its protective nose fairing. Took.

In a NASA blog post, the latest delay was attributed to a "liquid oxygen sensor line" showing "off-nominal data" during a dress-rehearsal countdown on June 22, when the Atlas 5 rocket was loaded without its payload. As a result, NASA said it "needs extra time for team inspection and evaluation."