Photos: Tuesday’s Atlas 5 rollout

Running through a practice countdown to check systems before launching a NASA sample-return probe to Asteroid Bennu in exactly two weeks, an Atlas 5 successfully completed its Wet Dress Rehearsal today.

Representatives from NASA, Boeing and Lockheed Martin argued that the United States shouldn’t skip past the Moon in favor of Mars when it comes to crewed deep space exploration. The discussion came up during a panel at the SpaceCom conference concerning the forthcoming Artemis 2 mission.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket stands atop Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral in readiness for the NROL-52 deployment mission for the National Reconnaissance Office.