[meteorite-list] NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for InSight Mission

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2013 13:16:13 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201312192116.rBJLGDGD001205_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

December 19, 2013

Joshua Buck
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
jbuck at nasa.gov

George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
george.h.diller at nasa.gov
     
CONTRACT RELEASE C13-053
     
NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for InSight Mission

NASA has selected United Launch Services LLC of Centennial, Colo., to launch
the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat
Transport (InSight) mission to Mars.

InSight will launch in March 2016 aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket from Space
Launch Complex 3E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The total cost for NASA to launch InSight is approximately $160 million,
including spacecraft processing, payload integration, tracking, data and
telemetry and other launch support requirements.

InSight is scheduled to land on Mars in September 2016 to begin a two-year
science mission. InSight is a lander that will address one of the most
fundamental issues of planetary and solar system science -- understanding the
processes that shaped the rocky planets of the inner solar system more than 4
billion years ago. The mission will investigate the interior structure and
processes of Mars to understand better the evolution of rocky planets such as
Earth. InSight will perform this science using two instrument packages.

NASA's Launch Services Program at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in
Florida is responsible for management and oversight of the Atlas V launch
services. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., provides
management for the InSight mission. United Launch Services, LLC operates as a
subsidiary of United Launch Alliance.

For more information about NASA's Launch Services Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/launchservices

For more information about NASA programs and missions, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

-end-
Received on Thu 19 Dec 2013 04:16:13 PM PST