WATCH: NASA’s Launch Services Program Prepares for Upcoming 2020 Missions
By Space Coast Daily // January 5, 2020
The first two missions will be launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida

WATCH: NASA’s Launch Services Program Prepares for Upcoming 2020 Missions
By Space Coast Daily // January 5, 2020
The first two missions will be launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida
ABOVE VIDEO: NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP) is ringing in the New Year with three planned science missions in 2020, aimed at studying the Sun, Mars and our oceans.
BREVARD COUNTY • CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FLORIDA – NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP) is ringing in the New Year with three planned science missions in 2020, aimed at studying the Sun, Mars and our oceans.
The first two missions will be launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, while the third will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Launching in February, Solar Orbiter is a collaborative mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, which will study the Sun, its outer atmosphere and the solar wind.
The spacecraft, developed by Airbus Defence and Space, will provide the first-ever images of the Sun’s poles. The Solar Orbiter spacecraft will launch aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 411 rocket, and liftoff is scheduled for Feb. 5. LSP will manage the launch.
NASA’s Mars 2020 mission is targeting to launch in July. Established under the agency’s Mars Exploration Program, the mission will send a rover to the Red Planet to search for signs of ancient microbial life.
It also will help us better understand the planet’s geology, collect rock and soil samples that can later be returned to Earth and test new technologies that could pave the way for future human exploration of Mars.
The rover is being manufactured at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and will be sent to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in mid-February.
The rover will launch on a ULA Atlas V 541 