An illustration of InSight about to land on the surface of Mars.
(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)

On Monday, NASA engineers at the Jet Propulsion Lab will be on pins and needles, waiting to see if the InSight spacecraft touches down safely on Mars.

InSight was launched seven months ago, traveling 301,223,981 miles and reaching a top speed of 6,200 mph. This is NASA's first mission to study the deep interior of Mars, and the craft's landing will be tricky. InSight will enter the planet's atmosphere at hypersonic speed, and must slow down quickly in order to make a gentle landing. If all goes according to plan, InSight will touch down at noon PST, with signals reaching engineers back on Earth eight minutes later.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.