Equipment failure delays Mars mission

illustration of Mars InSight lander

DELAYED INSIGHT  NASA's InSight spacecraft, illustrated here, was slated to launch in March 2016 and land on Mars six months later to probe the planet's interior. But a faulty instrument forced NASA to postpone the launch for at least two years.

JPL-Caltech/NASA

A leaky instrument will push back launch of the Mars InSight lander by at least two years, NASA announced at a news conference December 22.