NASA's latest rover Perseverance launched for Mars on Thursday, blasting off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on schedule. The first stage of rocket separation took place a few minutes later for the second stage Centaur rocket to take over, boosting it into orbit. Perseverance is now preparing for a second burn that will put it on a trajectory toward Mars, a trip that will take around seven months and cover 300 million miles (480 million kilometers). ia/bgs