NASA Invites Media to View Launch of InSight Mars Lander from West Coast

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Mar 23, 2018, 05:20 ET

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Media accreditation is open for the launch of NASA's next mission to Mars - the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport spacecraft (InSight) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The launch period runs May 5 through June 8.

Prelaunch media activities at Vandenberg include a briefing on May 3 and launch activities on May 5. Credentialing deadlines are as follows:

International media must RSVP by sending their passport number, country of issue and date of birth, as well as media outlet name and editor's contact information, to 2nd Lt. Amy Rasmussen at [email protected] no later than noon PDT Monday, April 2.
U.S. media must RSVP by sending their driver's license number, state of issue and date of birth, as well as media outlet name and editor's contact information, to 2nd Lt. Rasmussen no later than noon PDT Wednesday, April 18.

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

The spacecraft will launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket lifting off from Space Launch Complex-3 at Vandenberg, making it also the first planetary mission to take off from the West Coast.

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.

For more information about InSight, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/insight

SOURCE NASA