Tag: Mars
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Helicopter to accompany NASA’s next Mars rover to Red Planet
Artist’s concept of the Mars Helicopter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech A flying drone fitted with counter-rotating blades, on-board autonomy, and a lightweight carbon-fiber fuselage will ride to the Red Planet with NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, officials announced Friday. Promising results from recent ground testing and a funding boost provided by a new NASA budget passed by Congress…
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NASA adds a drone to its 2020 Mars rover
An artist’s conception shows the Mars Helicopter. (NASA / JPL-Caltech Illustration) NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has given the thumbs-up to putting a helicopter on Mars. The Mars Helicopter, which is actually more of an autonomous drone, will be packed into the belly pan of a Red Planet rover that’s due for launch in 2020. For…
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Rocketcam replay of InSight’s launch to Mars
Video credit: United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance has released a replay of the May 5 liftoff of NASA’s InSight mission to Mars aboard an Atlas 5 rocket, as viewed by aft- and forward-facing cameras on the two-stage launch vehicle. The 188-foot-tall (57-meter) Atlas 5 rocket lifted off at 4:05 a.m. PDT (7:05 a.m. EDT;…
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InSight lander lifts off from California, kicking off quest to get Mars’ inside story
An Atlas 5 rocket rises from its fog-shrouded launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, sending NASA’s Mars InSight lander toward the Red Planet. (GeekWire Photo/Kevin Lisota) NASA’s Mars InSight lander and two piggyback probes were lofted through California’s coastal fog into space before dawn today, beginning a six-month, 300 million-mile journey to…
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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…