ULA wins Mars 2020 rover launch

United Launch Alliance has won a $243 million contract to launch NASA's next Mars rover from Cape Canaveral in 2020, the space agency announced Thursday.

An Atlas V rocket equipped with four strap-on solid rocket boosters is expected to blast the Mars 2020 mission on its way to the Red Planet in July 2020.

The $2.4 billion mission will search for evidence of past life on Mars and collect a sample of rock and soil for return to Earth by a later mission.

“We are honored that NASA has selected ULA to provide another robotic science rover to Mars on this tremendously exciting mission,” said Laura Maginnis, ULA’s vice president of custom services. “ULA and our heritage rockets have launched every U.S. spacecraft to the red planet, including Mars Science Lab, as well as the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.”

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The Mars 2020 rover builds upon the design of the six-wheeled, one-ton Mars Science Laboratory, better known as Curiosity, currently exploring an area known as Gale Crater.

The same type of Atlas V rocket launched Curiosity from Cape Canaveral in November 2011, and the rover touched down in August 2012 with the help of a first-of-its-kind “sky crane” system.

NASA has extended Curiosity’s mission at least into 2018.

The Mars 2020 mission’s $2.4 billion cost includes development of the rover and its seven instruments, the Atlas V launch and $300 million to perform its science mission for one Mars year, or about 22 Earth months.

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com. And follow on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean and on Facebook at facebook.com/jamesdeanspace.