Tag: InSight
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Atlas V launches first West Coast interplanetary mission with InSight spacecraft to Mars
NASA’s InSight mission began a six-month journey to Mars on Saturday with liftoff aboard United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket. The first interplanetary mission to launch from the West Coast of the United States, InSight departed from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base at the opening of a two-hour launch window that opened at 04:05 local…
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He shoots, he scores: Basketball star Chris Bosh geeks out over Mars InSight mission
Chris Bosh and his wife, Adrienne Bosh, pose for a selfie with an Atlas 5 rocket in advance of today’s Mars InSight launch. (Adrienne Bosh via Twitter) While retired NBA All-Star basketball player Chris Bosh plans his next career moves, he and his wife Adrienne are taking a time out to witness the launch of…
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Photos: Mobile gantry retracted for launch of Atlas 5 rocket at Vandenberg
Towering more than 20 stories tall, the 8-million-pound mobile gantry at the Atlas 5 rocket’s launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, was retracted into position late Friday for liftoff of NASA’s InSight mission to Mars. The mobile service tower began moving into launch position around 11:30 p.m. PDT Friday (2:30 a.m. EDT; 0630…
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Fog and flames: Up-close photos from the Mars InSight mission’s launch pad
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — As thick fog enveloped Space Launch Complex 3 early this morning, the Mars InSight lander roared off the launch pad aboard an Atlas 5 rocket, starting its journey to the Red Planet. My three remote cameras were 300 to 400 feet away from the launch pad, and you can see…
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Video: InSight blasts off through the fog
Credit: NASA TV A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket took off Saturday from California with the InSight spacecraft heading for Mars. The 188-foot-tall (57-meter) Atlas 5 launcher lifted off powered by an RD-180 main engine at 4:05 a.m. PDT (7:05 a.m. EDT; 1105 GMT) Saturday, heading south-southeast from Vandenberg Air Force Base, a military…
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All systems go for launch of InSight, a mission to reveal the inside of Mars
Artist’s illustration of the InSight spacecraft on the surface of Mars. Credit: Lockheed Martin Scientists eager for answers to long-standing questions about the geology of Mars will get a lift Saturday with the blastoff from California of an Atlas 5 rocket with NASA’s InSight mission, a robotic landing craft that will take the pulse and…
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Launch timeline for Atlas 5’s mission with InSight
A United Launch Atlas 5 rocket is set to dispatch NASA’s InSight lander toward Mars, kicking off an interplanetary journey from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The 188-foot-tall (57-meter) rocket, propelled by an RD-180 main engine, is set for liftoff during a two-hour launch window Saturday that opens at 4:05 a.m. EDT (7:05 a.m.…
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Live coverage: InSight Mars mission lifts off from California aboard Atlas 5 rocket
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of an Atlas 5 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with NASA’s InSight lander heading to Mars to study the red planet’s interior structure. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. NASA’s live video coverage of the Atlas 5 launch will begin at 3:30 a.m.…
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It’s showtime for launch of NASA’s Mars lnSight lander (and its piggyback probes)
An artist’s impression shows the Mars InSight lander and a cutaway view of Mars’ subsurface, with the lander’s heat probe deployed underground. (NASA Illustration) NASA’s Mars InSight lander is being prepped for a launch that will send some magical science and engineering toward the Red Planet, including two pint-sized piggyback probes and a seismometer that…
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Managers clear InSight for launch after heat shield review
Ground crews oversee the installation of InSight’s heat shield last month. Credit: USAF 30th Space Wing/Aaron Taubman NASA officials have determined that the robotic InSight lander is ready for its mission to Mars after concluding that the probe should not suffer the same flaw that led to a crack in a heat shield undergoing tests…