NASA’s Insight Mission Prepares for Mars Landing on Monday

NASA’s InSight mission to Mars is just days away from reaching its destination. On Monday, November 26, the InSight lander will blaze through the atmosphere of the red planet and land on the surface. Now, the NASA team is making final preparations for the landing.

One of the many challenges of sending a craft to Mars is that engineers back on Earth can’t control the craft in real time. They have to rely on pre-programed software to guide the craft and wait for data to come back from other nearby craft to see if the lander has made it through the atmosphere to its destination. The craft will enter the top of the Martian atmosphere at a breakneck 12,300 mph (19,800 kph) before slowing down to 5 mph (8 kph) before landing on the surface.

According to NASA, the landing has been planned out down to the minute:

If you want to watch along to see if the InSight mission hits these milestones, the landing will be streamed live on NASA’s YouTube channel and in other locations. For information about when and how to watch the landing plus a pre-landing briefing and an engineering overview, have a look at NASA’s watch online page.