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NASA Mission InSight to Launch Saturday, May 5, 2018

Fairmont, W.Va. — On Saturday, May 5, 2018, the NASA mission InSight is scheduled to launch from the California coast to the plains of Mars at 4:05 a.m. PT. This is the first launch to another planet from the West Coast. A whole new region of the country will witness the start of an interplanetary journey when Insight soars into predawn skies.

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. It will use the seismic waves generated by marsquakes to develop a map of the planet’s deep interior. The resulting insight into Mars’ formation will help us better understand how other rocky planets, including Earth, were and are created.

NASA’s Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) Program here in Fairmont, West Virginia, performed verification and validation on this mission.

InSight will need to travel about 301 million miles, with an expected landing date of November 26, 2018 on the surface of Mars. For a complete timeline of the mission, visit: https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/mission/timeline/launch/

The prelaunch briefing and launch commentary will be streamed on NASA TV and at https://www.nasa.gov/live.

It will also be streamed live and archived at https://youtube.com/nasajpl/live.

Join the conversation on social media by following InSight at: https://twitter.com/NASAInSight orhttps://www.facebook.com/NASAInSight/

For questions or interview inquiries, please contact Bailee Miller at 304-367-8470 (work), 304-476-4301 (cell) or send an email to Bailee.R.Miller@ivv.nasa.gov