Q&A with Andrew Driesman, project manager for Parker Solar Probe (members only)

Spaceflight Now members can watch a live view of Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 launch pad as an Atlas 5 rocket counts down to liftoff at 5:02 p.m. EST (2202 GMT) Thursday with the GOES-S weather satellite.

A flying drone fitted with counter-rotating blades, on-board autonomy, and a lightweight carbon-fiber fuselage will ride to the Red Planet with NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, officials announced Friday.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 9:49:51 a.m. local time (12:49:51 p.m. EST; 1749:51 today to deploy a covert U.S. national security payload. Follow the ascent in our live journal.