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Mission record

InSight

Also known as Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, Mars InSight

National Aeronautics and Space Administration · Launched

Explore trajectory

Completed · Success

InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) is a NASA Discovery mission which landed on Mars in November 2018 and conducted surface observations until December 2022. The surface station carries cameras, X-band transponder, seismic and heat flow instruments designed with the scientific goals of understanding the formation and evolution of terrestrial planets through investigation of the interior structure and processes of Mars and to determine the present level of tectonic activity and meteorite impact rate on Mars. The last transmission was received on 15 December 2022 and the mission was declared over on 21 December 2022.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Atlas V 401
Launch site
Vandenberg AFB, United States
Countries
United States
Mission types
Lander

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched on an Atlas V from Vandenberg

    InSight launched on 5 May 2018 at 11:05 UT from Vandenburg Air Force Base on an Atlas V rocket, and the launch/orbital information page gives the same instant as 2018-05-05T11:05:00Z. NASA's mission page prints the same launch as May 5, 2018 (4:05 a.m. PT/7:05 a.m. ET) and the launch vehicle as Atlas V-401 where both NSSDCA pages print Atlas V 401. The committed launch site is the Facts in Brief value Vandenberg AFB, United States; the page's own text spells it Vandenburg.

    Earth

  2. Landing

    Landed in western Elysium Planitia

    The reconstructed entry, descent and landing kernel ends at touchdown at 19:44:53 UTC on 26 November 2018, the event time at Mars. The 19:52:59 UTC time on the NASA and NSSDCA mission pages describes receipt of the landing signal at Earth, about eight minutes later. The lander came to rest in western Elysium Planitia. Subsequent instrument deployment used the robotic arm; those undated operations are not assigned invented event timestamps.

    Mars

  3. Loss of contact

    Last transmission received

    The primary mission was scheduled to last about two years, ending 24 November 2020, covering a little over one full martian solar orbit. The mission was given an extension until December 2022. The last transmission from InSight was received on 15 December 2022.

    Mars

  4. Mission end

    Declared over after two failed attempts to make contact

    After two failed attempts to communicate with the lander, the mission was declared over, presumably due to the inability of the solar cell batteries to maintain enough power to run the spacecraft, on 21 December 2022. NASA's mission page, fetched on 2026-09-02, carries the same state as Occurred 4 years ago.

    Mars

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • InSight · Lander

    Destinations: Mars

    • Mars InSight Cruise Stage · Other

Trajectory record

Time-dependent navigation trajectory

Source states place the model at the selected time. Reconstructed flight, estimates, predictions and historical mission plans are identified by interval; gaps remain visible.

J2000 · Sun-centered display · positions interpolated between source states

Coverage: May 5, 2018 to December 15, 2022

Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.

  • InSight: Reconstructed · May 5, 2018 to November 26, 2018
  • Insight descent: Reconstructed · November 26, 2018 to November 26, 2018
  • InSight fixed surface site: Reconstructed · November 26, 2018 to December 15, 2022

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through October 10, 2026