Live coverage: Launch of Emirates Mars Mission rescheduled for Sunday

United Launch Alliance and SpaceX recently won contracts worth $739 million to send six missions into orbit for the U.S. military, and the Air Force has announced a new title for its flagship launcher program, dropping “expendable” from the name in a new era of reusable rockets.

NASA’s Perseverance rover, contained inside its aeroshell for a searing plunge into the Martian atmosphere next year, has been cocooned inside the payload shroud of its Atlas 5 launcher and mated with the rocket ahead of liftoff from Cape Canaveral scheduled for July 30.

An ultra-sensitive camera on NASA’s Parker Solar Probe caught an ethereal glimpse of the night side of Venus during a flyby last year, revealing terrain seen through the thick haze of the planet’s atmosphere.