United Launch Alliance – Spaceflight Now

First interplanetary CubeSats already setting records in deep space

May 17, 2018

Two CubeSats developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory launched May 5 with the InSight mission to Mars have deployed their miniaturized antennas and captured a distant family portrait of the Earth and the moon.

Rocketcam replay of InSight’s launch to Mars

May 11, 2018

United Launch Alliance has released a replay of the May 5 liftoff of NASA’s InSight mission to Mars aboard an Atlas 5 rocket, as viewed by aft- and forward-facing cameras on the two-stage launch vehicle.

Photos: Shrouded in fog, Atlas 5 takes flight from Vandenberg

May 9, 2018

A layer of fog intruding on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California kept nearby observers from seeing any sign of Saturday’s predawn launch of an Atlas 5 rocket carrying a robotic NASA probe to Mars. The only images of the Atlas 5’s fiery takeoff came from remote cameras placed at the launch pad, or from distant viewing points away from the poor visibility.

After foggy departure, it’s clear sailing to Mars for InSight lander

May 5, 2018

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

May 5, 2018

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

May 5, 2018

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tall, the 8-million-pound mobile gantry at the Atlas 5 rocket’s launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, was retracted into position late Friday for liftoff of NASA’s InSight mission to Mars.

Launch timeline for Atlas 5’s mission with InSight

May 4, 2018

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

May 4, 2018

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.

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

May 3, 2018

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.

Live coverage: InSight Mars mission lifts off from California aboard Atlas 5 rocket

May 3, 2018

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).