Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, fueled and buttoned up for liftoff Aug. 11 on the first mission to fly through the sun’s corona, arrived at its launch pad at Cape Canaveral early Tuesday after a convoy trip from a nearby fueling and test facility.

Three robotic Mars missions launched from Earth last month have begun fine-tuning their trajectories through the solar system with the first in a series mid-course corrections to take aim on the Red Planet for arrival next February.

Russian officials postponed the planned launch of a Proton rocket with an X-ray astronomy satellite Friday until no earlier than July 12 resolve a problem with an inadvertently drained battery on the vehicle.