NASA blasts off Mars-bound spacecraft to study quakes

Vandenberg Air Force Base (United States) (AFP) – NASA on Saturday blasted off a $993 million spaceship called InSight designed to study quakes on Mars and learn about its inner workings ahead of eventual human missions to explore the Red Planet.

“Three, two, one, liftoff!” said a NASA commentator as the unmanned spacecraft powered skyward through the foggy darkness at 4:05 am (1105 GMT) atop an Atlas V rocket, marking NASA’s first interplanetary launch from the US west coast.