Perseverance - NASA's latest Mars rover is named

Perseverance, the new rover NASA will send to Mars this summer. The name, Perseverance, announced on Thursday and the name was chosen in a nationwide contest that involved over 28,000 student essays from kindergarten to grade 12. Perseverance is scheduled to launch along with a helicopter aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station no earlier than 9:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time on July 17.

It will travel through interplanetary space for seven months and is scheduled to land at Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. If successful, it will be NASA's 8th Mars landing and the 5th Mars rover.