Live coverage: NASA confirms successful first flight of Mars helicopter

The mission will focus on proving the reusability of the rocket and not on additional flight objectives, like operating the payload bay door or reigniting the vacuum engines on the Ship upper stage. The June 5 launch window opens at 7 a.m. CDT (8 a.m. EDT (1200 UTC).

JPL chief engineer Rob Manning, a veteran of Mars mission teams dating back to Mars Pathfinder more than two decades ago, describes how the InSight spacecraft will enter the Martian atmosphere and touch down on the red planet.

Flight controllers at NASA’s mission control center in Houston have completed the robotic swap out of a failed power distribution unit outside the International Space Station, clearing a hurdle ahead of Friday’s predawn launch from Cape Canaveral of a SpaceX supply ship.