Q&A with Bruce Banerdt, principal investigator on NASA’s InSight mission (members only)

With NASA’s attention at the red planet shifting to collecting and bringing rock samples back to Earth — a feat that could take a decade with costs that will leave little money for other Mars missions — the space agency is counting on its workhorse Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter continuing its imaging and radio relay functions for nearly 10 more years.

China’s space agency has released a pair of spectacular video clips from “selfie” cameras on-board the country’s Tianwen 1 spacecraft as it braked into orbit around Mars on Feb. 10.

Blue Origin says it is “very, very close” to flying humans on suborbital launches to the edge of space after a successful test flight of a human-capable rocket and capsule Thursday.