NASA Launches Atlas V Rocket to Mars Today. Mars Probe #Alyona Curiosity & Sky Crane : Plutonium Powered. Mars launch: NASA launches largest-ever Mars rover - latimes.com. Reporting from Cape Canaveral, Fla. — With the roar of an Atlas 5 engine, NASA on Saturday began its boldest venture yet to another planet — sending the Mars Science Laboratory on an eight-month journey expected to provide more detailed information about whether the Red Planet is, or ever has been, hospitable to life.
After a one-day delay to replace a faulty battery, the launch went off flawlessly at 7:02 a.m. PST, the rocket rising on a column of white smoke into a blue sky mottled with puffy cumulus clouds. "Whew! That felt so good," said Joy Crisp, a deputy project scientist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, as the rocket trailed out of sight. "That was spectacular! " Mars Anomaly Research Home Page.