NASA’S INSIGHT PROBE LANDS ON MARS, Nov 26, 2018, ~3:00 pm ET (NASA webcast begins 2:00 pm ET)

NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission will land on Mars on November 26, 2018 at about 3:00 pm ET (12:00 pm Pacific).  NASA will livestream the landing beginning at 2:00 pm ET and hold a post-landing press conference no earlier than 5:00 pm ET.

InSight was launched on May 5, 2018.  It is a lander, not a rover.  Once it lands, it will use two instruments to study the interior of Mars – its crust, mantle and core.

Two cubesats called MarCO (Mars Cube One) are travelling along with Insight.  They will fly past Mars as InSight lands and relay data back to Earth during InSight’s entry, descent and landing sequence.  NASA hopes the MarCOs will operate correctly and relay signals that the spacecraft landed successfully.  If not, it will have to wait for data from Earth-based radio telescopes that will be listening for signals from InSight, or from two spacecraft already orbiting Mars — the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and Mars Odyssey — to be in the correct position to relay data from InSight to Earth.  Thus NASA may know immediately if InSight landed safely or it may take several hours.

About 80 live viewing events around the world are planned in connection with the landing.  Many websites also will be providing coverage in addition to NASA’s.

A landing press kit is available.