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

NASA’s Perseverance rover, set for liftoff Thursday on a journey to Mars, posed some unusual challenges for launch crews working with the robot’s plutonium-fueled power generator, but United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket is uniquely suited for the job, the company’s CEO says.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket roars away from launch complex 41 at Cape Canaveral carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.

Engineers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center tasked with overseeing launches of scientific satellites and interplanetary probes will be responsible later this year for ensuring six major missions safely get into space over a span of a little more than six months, beginning with the launch of NOAA’s new GOES-S weather observatory on an Atlas 5 rocket March 1.