Mars InSight Mission
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INSIGHT MISSION IMAGES

MarCO and Dispenser

One of the MarCO CubeSats inside a cleanroom at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, before being placed into its deployment box.

April 19, 2018

One of the MarCO CubeSats inside a cleanroom at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, before being placed into its deployment box. The deployment box will eject the briefcase-sized CubeSat into space after launch. It and its twin will accompany the InSight Mars lander when it lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in May.

Credits

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Tyvak/Cal Poly SLO.

ENLARGE

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Technicians at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado installed a microchip with 1.6 million names submitted by the public to ride along with NASA’s InSight mission to Mars.
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This is an illustration showing a simulated view of NASA's InSight lander about to land on the surface of Mars. This view shows the underside of the spacecraft.
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Once NASA's InSight Mars lander enters the Martian atmosphere and approaches the planet's surface, propulsive landing gear will slow the spacecraft down to about 5.5 mph (8.8 km/h) and safely set it down on the surface of the Red Planet.
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This is the first image taken by NASA’s InSight lander on the surface of Mars.
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The science deck of NASA's InSight lander is being turned over in this April 29, 2015, photo from InSight assembly and testing operations inside a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.
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