Last flight of the Titan

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 temperature of the red planet.

Canada’s three new Radarsat Earth observation satellites were encapsulated inside the payload fairing of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket ahead of their liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Orbital ATK’s Minotaur-C rocket will deliver 10 commercial Earth observations satellites into a 310-mile-high orbit for Planet during a 20-minute flight sequence.