NASA sets sights on Mars with historic InSight launch

NASA is set to make history when it launches its InSight Mars lander on May 5. InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) will be the first spacecraft to launch to another planet from the West Coast when it blasts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California. The launch at Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex-3 is scheduled for 7:05 a.m. EDT on May 5. A United Launch Alliance Atlas v 401 rocket will send InSight on its 7-month journey to Mars. The unmanned spacecraft, which is built by Lockheed Martin, is expected to land on the Red Planet on Nov. 26, 2018. The mission, which is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will provide scientists with a wealth of data. "InSight will be the first mission to peer deep beneath the Martian surface, studying the planet's interior by measuring its heat output and listening for marsquakes, which are seismic events similar to earthquakes on Earth," explained NASA, in a statement.