Jet Propulsion Laboratory – Page 15

Managers clear InSight for launch after heat shield review

May 1, 2018 Stephen Clark

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.

Photos: NASA’s InSight lander buttoned up for trip to Mars

April 29, 2018 Stephen Clark

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

April 28, 2018 Stephen Clark

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

April 24, 2018 Stephen Clark

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

April 24, 2018 Stephen Clark

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

April 9, 2018 Stephen Clark

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

April 8, 2018 Stephen Clark

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.

Saturn’s clouds run deep, rings may rain organics

April 6, 2018 Stephen Clark

Saturn’s clouds have roots deeper inside the planet’s atmosphere than scientists previously thought, and Saturn’s rings — now believed to have formed in the last 200 million years — appear to be raining organic molecules down on the planet, according to observations made by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft last year in the final weeks of its mission.

Atlas 5 rocket assembled for first Mars mission launch from Vandenberg

March 23, 2018 Stephen Clark

Ground crews at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California raised a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on its launch pad earlier this month in preparation for liftoff May 5 with NASA’s InSight lander heading to Mars.

NASA to decide soon whether flying drone will launch with Mars 2020 rover

March 15, 2018 Stephen Clark

Testing of a lightweight robotic helicopter designed to fly in the alien atmosphere of Mars has produced encouraging results in recent months, and NASA officials expect to decide soon whether the aerial drone will accompany the agency’s next rover to the red planet set for liftoff in 2020.