'Mars Is Hard': Tension Rises for NASA's InSight Landing on Red PlanetBy Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | November 25, 2018 03:24pm ET
PASADENA, Calif. — They don't call it "7 minutes of terror" for nothing.
NASA's InSight Mars lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet tomorrow afternoon (Nov. 26), and mission team members and agency officials are understandably nervous about the make-or-break moment.
Less than half of all Mars missions, be they orbiters or landers, have aced their Red Planet arrivals over the decades, Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C., noted during a news conference here today (Nov. 25) at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). [NASA's InSight Mars Lander: Full Coverage]
"So, we're of course worried," Zurbuchen said. "We recognize that you never take Mars for granted. Mars is hard."
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