Mars InSight

With only two days remaining until the scheduled launch of NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft, launch and mission managers will hold a prelaunch briefing today, May 3, at 4 p.m. EDT (1 p.m. PDT) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Watch the InSight Prelaunch Briefing live on NASA TV at www.nasa.gov/nasalive.

Prelaunch briefing participants are:

• Jim Green, chief scientist, NASA
• Bruce Banerdt, InSight principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Tom Hoffman, InSight project manager at JPL
• Annick Sylvestre-Baron, deputy project manager for the InSight seismometer investigation at France’s space agency, the Centre National d’Études Spatiales
• Philippe Lognonné, InSight seismometer investigation lead at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in France
• Tilman Spohn, investigation lead at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe (HP3), an instrument on InSight
• Andrew Klesh, MarCO chief engineer at JPL
• Anne Marinan, MarCO systems engineer at JPL
• Stu Spath, InSight program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems
• Tim Dunn, launch director with NASA’s Launch Services Program
• Scott Messer, ULA program manager for NASA launches
• Michael Hough, commander of the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg
• 1st Lt. Kristina Williams, weather officer for the 30th Space Wing

Meteorologists with the U.S. Air Force 30th Space Wing predict a 20 percent chance of favorable weather for liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA’s InSight spacecraft. The overall probability of violation will be 80 percent with the Range Safety constraint of launch visibility being the only area of concern. Launch is scheduled for Saturday, May 5 at 7:05 a.m. EDT (4:05 a.m. PDT) from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California.

Launch week is underway at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where NASA’s InSight spacecraft is being prepared for its upcoming flight to Mars. Mission and launch officials gathered Monday for the InSight flight readiness review. Teams are preparing to launch InSight on its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket Saturday, May 5, at 4:05 a.m. PDT (7:05 a.m. EDT).

Prelaunch activities continue today as launch team members take part in a countdown dress rehearsal.

InSight will be the first mission to look deep beneath the Martian surface. It will study the planet’s interior by measuring its heat output and listening for marsquakes. InSight will use the seismic waves generated by marsquakes to develop a map of the Red Planet’s deep interior. The resulting insight into Mars’ formation will provide a better understanding of how other rocky planets, including Earth, were created.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the InSight mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by its Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The spacecraft, including cruise stage and lander, was built and tested by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver. Several European partners, including France’s space agency, the Centre National d’Étude Spatiales, and the German Aerospace Center, are supporting the mission. United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado, is providing the Atlas V launch service. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at its Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management.

NASA’s next Mars lander is one significant step closer to beginning its journey. Secured inside its payload fairing, the agency’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft was transported from the Astrotech facility to Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The payload fairing was hoisted up inside the Vertical Integration Facility and attached to the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Liftoff is scheduled for May 5, 2018.

InSight will be the first mission to look deep beneath the Martian surface. It will study the planet’s interior by measuring its heat output and listening for marsquakes. InSight will use the seismic waves generated by marsquakes to develop a map of the Red Planet’s deep interior. The resulting insight into Mars’ formation will provide a better understanding of how other rocky planets, including Earth, were created.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the InSight mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by its Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The spacecraft, including cruise stage and lander, was built and tested by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver. Several European partners, including France’s space agency, the Centre National d’Étude Spatiales, and the German Aerospace Center, are supporting the mission. United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado, is providing the Atlas V launch service. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at its Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management.