NRM: "The $2.5 billion Mars Rover Curiosity successfully launched from Cape Canaveral at 10:02am, beginning the eight month journey to determine whether or not Mars was ever suitable for life.
"We are very excited about sending the world's most advanced scientific laboratory to Mars," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. The laboratory is being carried aboard an Atlas V rocket, and is set to land near the foot of a mountain inside Gale Crater: a place with thick layers of sediment for a wealthy amount of research into the possibility of inhabiting Mars in the future."
The asteroid zoomed by Earth at a perfectly safe distance of around 1.8 million miles (2.9 kilometers).
Engineers expect to lose contact with the private US moon lander Odysseus on Tuesday, cutting short the mission after its sideways touchdown last week.
NASA announced Tuesday that a $32.7 million Capstone spacecraft intended to try out a skewed lunar orbit had lost contact, but agency engineers are confident
