A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will launch NASA’s InSight mission on a trajectory for landing on Mars in November 2018 to begin a mission of at least two years using a suite of instruments to study the planet’s interior to better understand the processes the shaped the rocky planets of the solar system, including our own. The mission has the full name of “Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport” and employs the overall design of the 2008 Phoenix Mars Lander with a payload suite comprising a high-fidelity seismometer, a self-penetrating heat-flow probe and a rotation and interior structure experiment. InSight is targeting a landing in Elysium Planitia.

The InSight Mission was delayed from the 2016 interplanetary launch window due to a critical fault discovered on the lander’s primary seismic instrument. To send InSight on its way, Atlas V will be flying in its basic 401 configuration without boosters and a single-engine Centaur upper stage.

Mission Resources:

➡ Mission Updates

? InSight: Mission Overview — Spacecraft & Platform — Instruments

? Secondary Payloads: MarCO CubeSats

? Launch Vehicle Overview:  Atlas V 401

⏰ Countdown Timeline

☂ Launch Weather

? Launch Site Schedule