InSight Aeroshell Coming Together

The heat shield is suspended above the rest of the InSight spacecraft in this image taken July 13, 2015, in a spacecraft assembly clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver. The gray cone is the back shell, which together with the heat shield forms a protective aeroshell around the stowed InSight lander. The photo was taken during preparation for vibration testing of the spacecraft.

InSight, for Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is scheduled for launch in March 2016 and landing in September 2016. It will study the deep interior of Mars to advance understanding of the early history of all rocky planets, including Earth.

The InSight Project is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin is building and testing the spacecraft. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, which is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.