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Next-generation Mars rover blasts off
Nov 26, 2011, 15:06 GMT
Washington - NASA's next generation Mars rover was on its way to the Red Planet on Saturday after blasting off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft soared into the grey skies above the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1502 GMT atop an Atlas V rocket.
The Mars Science Laboratory mission is headed on a more than eight-month flight to Mars.
Once it reaches Earth's nearest planetary neighbour, the craft will deploy a high-tech 900-kilogramme rover, known as Curiosity, to follow-up on confirmations of water on Mars by past rovers and determine if areas habitable to life ever existed on the planet.
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