OREANDA-NEWS. The spacecraft Atlas V carrying the rover Perseverance was launched on July 30 from the site at Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA. The broadcast was organized by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Twitter.

The research rover is scheduled to enter Martian orbit on February 18, 2021.

Earlier, NASA head Jim Bridenstine informed that the main tasks of Perseverance are to find traces of life on Mars and test new technique. According to him, this is the first time in history when research in the field of astrobiology became the main task of the mission. The rover is to travel to the ancient crater Jezero, which was the bottom of a lake.

Studies show that 3 billion years ago Mars had an atmosphere, there was water on the planet, and its surface was protected from the effects of solar radiation. Bridenstine does not exclude that there were suitable conditions for life then.