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NASA Mars 2020 rover arrives in Florida to prep for July launch to the red planet

The Mars 2020 rover has arrived in Florida ahead of its planned July launch. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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6 years ago

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NASA’s next Mars rover arrived in Florida this week (Feb. 12) to begin final preparations ahead of its planned July launch. The six-wheeled rover (and its accompanying Mars Helicopter) were ferried across the country by two Air Force C-17 Globemaster cargo planes.  The duo touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at approximately 3 p.m. EST (12 p.m. PST), completing a 2,300-mile (3,700-kilometer) journey.

“Our rover has left the only home it has ever known,” said John McNamee, Mars 2020 project manager, referring to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. “The 2020 family here at JPL is a little sad to see it go, but we’re even more proud knowing that the next time our rover takes to the skies, it will be headed to Mars.”

Two C-17 Globemaster cargo planes transported the Mars 2020 rover to Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA

The first bits of the rover were assembled in Jan. 2018, and now, just over two years later, the soon-to-be-named rover is complete.

In the next few hours, the rover will be transported to its home for the next several months: a specialized facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center known as the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) — the same spacecraft processing facility where Curiosity was housed prior to its launch in 2011. 

Curiosity is currently exploring Gale Crater and assessing the region’s past habitability. Could life have once thrived on the red planet? While there’s no definitive answer yet, Curiosity has made many promising discoveries and is working to solve some Martian mysteries.

Mars 2020’s duties on the red planet are going to be a bit different as the advanced rover is packing equipment that will enable it to look for biosignatures, bag up samples for a later return, and test out technologies that future human missions to Mars will rely on. The craft will ouch down at Jezero Crater in Feb. 2021 and will perform some incredible in-situ science.

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The Mars 2020 rover has arrived in Florida ahead of its planned July launch. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

But before it gets there, it needs to launch. Later this week, engineers will start testing the rover’s systems to see how it fared during its cross-country journey. Many months of testing and final assembly await the rover before it is encased in its aeroshell in June.

After that, the rover will be transported over to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 in Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where it will be attached to its launcher: an Atlas V.

Mars 2020 will look for biosignatures (signs of life) while also collecting rock and soil samples to store in sealed tubes on the planet’s surface. Subsequent missions will collect the samples and then return them to Earth so that scientists around the world will be able to study them.

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SpaceX opens up free Starlink service for those impacted by Hurricane Melissa

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4 hours ago

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October 28, 2025

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(Credit: Starlink | X)

SpaceX is opening up its internet service, Starlink, to those impacted by Hurricane Melissa, as it made landfall in Jamaica and the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm.

Hurricane Melissa is expected to reach wind speeds of over 165 MPH over the next few days as it extends out into the Atlantic Ocean by Thursday and Friday.

Citizens in Jamaica and the Bahamas have been preparing for the storm for the past week, getting necessary goods together and preparing for the massive storm to arrive. It finally did yesterday, and the first images and video of the storm are showing that it could destroy many parts of both countries.

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Starlink is now being opened up for free until the end of November for those impacted by the storm in Jamaica and the Bahamas, SpaceX announced today:

It is a move similar to the one the company made last year as Hurricane Helene made its way through the United States, destroying homes and property across the East Coast. SpaceX offered free service for those impacted by the destruction caused by the storm.

The free Starlink service was available until the end of 2024.

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Elon Musk’s companies have also made similar moves to help out those who are impacted by natural disasters. Tesla has offered Free Supercharging in the past, most notably during the California wildfires.

Tesla and SpaceX’s LA fire relief efforts: Cybertrucks, free Starlink and more

One major advantage of Starlink is that it is available for use in situations like this one, where power might be required to operate things like a modem and router.

Internet access is a crucial part of survival in these situations, especially as it can be the last leg some stand on to get in touch with emergency services or loved ones.

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SpaceX reaches incredible Starlink milestone

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2 days ago

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October 26, 2025

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Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX has reached an incredible milestone with its Starlink program, officially surpassing 10,000 satellites launched into low Earth orbit since starting the program back in 2019.

Last Sunday, October 19, SpaceX launched its 131st and 132nd Falcon 9 missions of 2025, one from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and the other from Vandenberg, California.

The 10,000th Starlink satellite was aboard the launch from California, which was Starlink 11-19, and held 28 v2 mini optimized satellites.

The achievement was marked by a satellite tracker developed by Jonathan McDowell.

The first Starlink launch was all the way back on May 23, 2019, as SpaceX launched its first 60 satellites from Cape Canaveral using a Falcon 9 rocket.

Of the over 10,000 satellites in orbit, the tracker says 8,608 are operational, as some are intentionally de-orbited after becoming faulty and destroyed in the atmosphere.

SpaceX has truly done some really incredible things during its development of the Starlink program, including launch coverage in a global setting, bringing along millions of active subscribers that use the service for personal and business use, locking up commercial partnerships, and more.

Starlink currently operates in around 150 countries, territories, and markets and is available at least somewhere on all seven continents.

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Additionally, Starlink has over 5 million subscribers worldwide, and 2.7 million have joined the program over the past year. It has revolutionized internet access on commercial aircraft as well, as several high-profile airlines like Qatar and United, among many others, have already installed Starlink on some of their planes to deliver more stable connectivity for passengers and crew.

SpaceX has the approval to launch 12,000 Starlink satellites from the FAA, but it plans to bring over 30,000 to its constellation, giving anyone the ability to have access to high-speed internet.

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SpaceX aces Starship’s 11th launch with success in every mission objective

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2 weeks ago

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October 14, 2025

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Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX aces its eleventh Starship test launch on Monday evening, marking the company’s second consecutive takeoff that crossed off each of the planned mission objectives.

It was also the final launch of the V2 Starship rocket. The twelfth test flight will feature the larger V3 Starship rocket, followed by V4, which will eventually make the first trip to Mars.

The launch was overwhelmingly successful. In its 12th test flight, SpaceX was able to achieve every major mission objective, including the second successful deployment of Starlink satellite simulators and the relight of a Raptor engine while in space. The latter achievement demonstrated “a critical capability for future deorbit burns,” the company said.

The ship officially launched at 6:23 p.m. local time in Starbase, Texas, with all 33 engines igniting and sending the Ship to space.

Stage separation occurred just over eight minutes later, and Super Heavy started its descent back to the Gulf of America, where it successfully splashed down. The first part of the launch was complete.

Starlink simulators were deployed about twenty-one minutes after launch, as the Pez dispenser sent the faux-satellites out to space without any issue:

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Perhaps the most anticipated part of the launch was with Starship’s banking maneuver and subsequent splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

Prior to Starship 11’s launch and successful re-entry and splashdown, SpaceX had lost a few vehicles during this portion of the previous flights.

However, the company had made tremendous improvements and has now aced two consecutive launches. On Monday, its approach and splashdown were both overwhelmingly successful:

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The re-entry phase of this particular Starship launch aimed to gather data on the performance of the heatshield, SpaceX said. The heatshield was intentionally stressed to its limits to determine how much it could withstand without failing.

SpaceX will now turn its focus to the next vehicles, including V3, which is larger, more capable, and will help the company gather even more information about its launches into space:

CEO Elon Musk has said the third-generation Starship rocket will be built and tested by the end of the year.

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