NASA's InSight Lander Successfully Lands on Mars

The NASA team has done it once again. 

After years of preparation, scientists (happily) announced that NASA's InSight lander had managed a textbook landing on Mars Monday, just before noon Pacific time. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, erupted in applause, laughs, and even tears, as news of the lander's successful landing was announced, relieving the tension that had been building all morning. 

The lander is the eighth mission to land on the Red Planet successfully, and the first since the Curiosity Rover touched down in 2012. More than half of the missions sent to Mars haven't made it. 

Scientists couldn't do much but wait and see if the lander survived the journey. Because it takes radio signals more than eight minutes to reach Earth, all they could do was program the spacecraft and let go, hoping everything would work as intended. 

Shortly before noon, Pacific time, the team at JPL learned everything went just fine. 

The two-year, $814 million mission plans to study Mars' deep interior on a "heavenly plain" known as Elysium Planitia, located near Mars' equator. The flat area will allow the lander to remain perfectly still while it takes the planet's temperature, and begin researching 'Marsquakes' with a seismometer provided by a French team. 

The lander will study the layers making up the planet's crust, mantle and core, knowledge that scientists hope will advance the understanding about the evolution of planets, including Earth and planets orbiting other stars. 

Photo: Getty Images