A critical part of NASA's next $2 billion rover mission to Mars broke during testing earlier this month. The Mars 2020 mission's heat shield was undergoing stress-testing when it developed a crack ...

The heat shield for NASA's next Mars spacecraft just cracked open. Luckily, engineers found this out during testing here on Earth, long before the Mars 2020 rover mission leaves for the Red Planet.

The heat shield for NASA's upcoming Mars rover suffered a fracture during testing recently, but the incident won't change the mission's launch date, agency officials said.