Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

NASA’s Perseverance rover will depart Cape Canaveral Thursday on a $2.7 billion mission to Mars, carrying with it the first interplanetary aircraft, sophisticated instruments to search for signs of ancient life, and drill to core samples for eventual return to Earth.

SpaceX and United Launch Alliance expect to resume launches with little or no delay after Hurricane Irma veered west of Cape Canaveral last weekend, sparing the launch base from the storm’s most extreme damage.

The two Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program, or GSSAP, satellites for the U.S. military are mounted aboard the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket. Liftoff is planned for Aug. 19 from Cape Canaveral.