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Q&A with Bruce Banerdt, principal investigator on NASA’s InSight mission (members only)
Bruce Banerdt leads the InSight science team, and is in charge of the lander heading for Mars to study the red planet's interior structure, collecting data that should yield new information about the environment in the early solar system, when planets coalesced and formed 4.5 billion years ago.
VideoLive coverage: InSight Mars mission lifts off from California aboard Atlas 5 rocket
NASA's InSight spacecraft, the next lander to head for Mars, lifted off Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. Launch occurred in a blanket of fog at 4:05 a.m. PDT (7:05 a.m. EDT; 1105 GMT).
Managers clear InSight for launch after heat shield review
NASA officials have determined that the robotic InSight lander is ready for its mission to Mars after concluding that the probe should not suffer the same flaw that led to a crack in a heat shield undergoing tests for the space agency's Mars 2020 rover, InSight's chief scientist said Monday.
NASA cancels lunar rover, shifts focus to commercial moon landers
As NASA turns up support for future commercial lunar landers, the space agency last week canceled a mission that would have placed a rover on the moon to survey resources, such as water and helium, that could be used by future human explorers.
Photos: NASA’s InSight lander buttoned up for trip to Mars
Now cocooned inside a heat shield and the nose shroud of an Atlas 5 rocket that will send it to Mars, NASA's InSight lander is awaiting launch May 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
NASA to replace cracked heat shield in time for Mars 2020 rover launch
NASA officials plan to replace the Mars 2020 rover's heat shield after engineers discovered a crack in the structure earlier this month, but managers anticipate no delay in the mission's scheduled launch date a little more than two years away.
InSight Mars lander joined with Atlas 5 launcher at Vandenberg Air Force Base
Ground crews at Vandenberg Air Force Base on California's Central Coast hoisted NASA's InSight Mars lander atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket Monday, kicking off nearly two weeks of integrated tests and checkouts before the probe's interplanetary launch window opens May 5.
Atlas 5/InSight launch windows
The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket carrying NASA's InSight lander toward Mars will have a roughly two-hour predawn launch window each day from May 5 through June 8 to boost the science probe into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
NASA is counting on long-lived Mars orbiter lasting another decade
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.
NASA’s InSight lander inside one month to launch toward Mars
NASA's InSight Mars lander will be buttoned up for launch in the coming weeks at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, in preparation for its hoisting atop an Atlas 5 rocket for blastoff in the predawn hours of May 5.