Atlas 5 launches NROL-61 as seen from the NASA Press Site

Twenty-eight thousand students across the United States submitted essays and proposed names for NASA’s newest Mars rover and on Thursday, the agency announced the winner: Perseverance, submitted by Virginia seventh-grader Alexander Mather.

A collection of pad photos from the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flight carrying the NROL-55 cargo for the National Reconnaissance Office.

China led the world with 34 orbital launch attempts in 2019 — including two failures — followed by 22 flights from Russian-operated launch pads and 21 satellite delivery missions originating from U.S. spaceports, all of which were successful.