WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — NASA’s Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander is set to touch down on the Red Planet at about 2 p.m. CST on Nov. 26.

Media are invited to watch the historic Mars landing with NASA scientists and others during a live viewing event from noon to 5 p.m. at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center’s Davidson Center for Space Exploration in Huntsville, Alabama.

Renee Weber, acting chief scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and InSight science team member, will be available for post-landing interviews no earlier than 2:30 p.m. in the National Geographic Theater.

Launched on May 5, InSight is the first spacecraft built to study Mars’ deep interior. The landing will kick off a two-year mission that will help scientists understand the formation of the Red Planet and all rocky planets, including Earth.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the InSight mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center. 

News media interested in covering the event should contact Molly Porter in the Office of Communications molly.a.porter@nasa.gov or 256-424-5158 no later than 11 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 26. 

For more detailed information about the rocket center event, go to:

https://www.rocketcenter.com/calendar/2018-11-26/mars-insight-landing-celebration

An InSight landing press kit is available at:

https://go.nasa.gov/insight_pk

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SOURCE NASA