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After foggy departure, it’s clear sailing to Mars for InSight lander
Making a fiery climb into a foggy sky Saturday over California's Central Coast, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket dispatched NASA's InSight lander on a 301-million-mile voyage to Mars with a package of European-built instruments to probe the inside of the Red Planet.

Video: InSight blasts off through the fog
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket took off Saturday from California with the InSight spacecraft heading for Mars.

Photos: Mobile gantry retracted for launch of Atlas 5 rocket at Vandenberg
Towering more than 20 stories tall, the 8-million-pound mobile gantry at the Atlas 5 rocket's launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, was retracted into position late Friday for liftoff of NASA's InSight mission to Mars.
VideoLaunch timeline for Atlas 5’s mission with InSight
A United Launch Atlas 5 rocket is set to dispatch NASA's InSight lander toward Mars, kicking off an interplanetary journey from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

All systems go for launch of InSight, a mission to reveal the inside of Mars
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.
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).

NASA could extend space station stays as hedge against commercial crew delays
NASA is working with the Russian space agency to potentially extend crew stays on the International Space Station, the agency's acting administrator said last week, as a cushion against expected delays in the development of commercial crew capsules by Boeing and SpaceX.

End to government shutdown should limit impact on space operations
NASA and the U.S. Air Force are expected to return to normal operations Tuesday after lawmakers passed a budget bill Monday evening, ending a government funding lapse that threatened to cut off live television coverage of an International Space Station spacewalk and interrupt SpaceX launch operations in Florida and California.

Soyuz carries three station crew members back to Earth
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying three space station crew members hurtled back to Earth Thursday, completing a fiery plunge back through the atmosphere before settling to a frigid touchdown on the snowy steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 139-day mission.
VideoLive coverage: Space station crew back on Earth
Outgoing space station commander Randy Bresnik, joined by Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy and European Space Agency flight engineer Paolo Nespoli, returned to Earth early Thursday after nearly five months in orbit. Their Soyuz MS-05 capsule undocked from the International Space Station at 12:14 a.m. EST (0514 GMT), and landed on the steppe of Kazakhstan at 3:37 a.m. EST (0837 GMT).