[meteorite-list] Mars Spacecraft Shipped to California for March Launch (InSight)

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4797

Mars Spacecraft Shipped to California for March Launch
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
December 17, 2015

NASA Insight Mission Status Report

NASA's next Mars spacecraft has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, 
California, for final preparations before a launch scheduled in March 
2016 and a landing on Mars six months later.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built and tested the spacecraft 
and delivered it on Dec. 16 from Buckley Air Force Base in Denver to Vandenberg, 
on the central California Coast.

Preparations are on a tight schedule for launch during the period March 
4 through March 30. The work ahead includes installation and testing of 
one of the mission's key science instruments, its  seismometer, which 
is scheduled for delivery to Vandenberg in January.

"InSight has traveled the first leg of its journey, getting from Colorado 
to California, and we're on track to start the next leg, to Mars, with 
a launch in March," said InSight Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt, 
of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

The seismometer, provided by France's national space agency (CNES), includes 
a vacuum container around its three main sensors. Maintaining the vacuum 
is necessary for the instrument's extremely high sensitivity; the seismometer 
is capable of measuring ground motions as small as the width of an atom. 
A vacuum leak detected during testing of the seismometer was repaired 
last week in France and is undergoing further testing.

InSight's heat-probe instrument from Germany's space agency (DLR), the 
lander's robotic arm and the rest of the payload are already installed 
on the spacecraft.

InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy 
and Heat Transport, is the first Mars mission dedicated to studying the 
deep interior of the Red Planet. This Mars lander's findings will advance 
understanding about the formation and evolution of all rocky planets, 
including Earth.

One of the newest additions installed on the InSight lander is a microchip 
bearing the names of about 827,000 people worldwide who participated in 
an online "send your name to Mars" activity in August and September 2015.

InSight will be the first mission to Mars ever launched from California. 
The mission is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall 
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

For more information about InSight, visit:

http://insight.jpl.nasa.gov


Media Contact

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov 

Gary Napier
Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver
303-971-4012
gary.p.napier at lmco.com 

George Diller
NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-861-7643
george.h.diller at nasa.gov 

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo at nasa.gov 

2015-378