[meteorite-list] NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for InSight Mission

[Ron Baalke]

December 19, 2013

Joshua Buck
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
jbuck at nasa.gov 

George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
george.h.diller at nasa.gov 
     
CONTRACT RELEASE C13-053
     
NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for InSight Mission

NASA has selected United Launch Services LLC of Centennial, Colo., to launch  
the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat  
Transport (InSight) mission to Mars.

InSight will launch in March 2016 aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket from Space  
Launch Complex 3E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The total cost for NASA to launch InSight is approximately $160 million,  
including spacecraft processing, payload integration, tracking, data and  
telemetry and other launch support requirements.

InSight is scheduled to land on Mars in September 2016 to begin a two-year  
science mission. InSight is a lander that will address one of the most  
fundamental issues of planetary and solar system science -- understanding the  
processes that shaped the rocky planets of the inner solar system more than 4  
billion years ago. The mission will investigate the interior structure and  
processes of Mars to understand better the evolution of rocky planets such as  
Earth. InSight will perform this science using two instrument packages.

NASA's Launch Services Program at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in  
Florida is responsible for management and oversight of the Atlas V launch  
services. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., provides  
management for the InSight mission. United Launch Services, LLC operates as a  
subsidiary of United Launch Alliance.

For more information about NASA's Launch Services Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/launchservices 

For more information about NASA programs and missions, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov 

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