Touchdown on Mars! NASA's InSight Lands to Peer Inside the Red Planet

NASA's InSight lander touched down safely on the Martian surface today (Nov. 26), pulling off the first successful Red Planet landing since the Curiosity rover's arrival in August 2012.

InSight (whose name is short for 'Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport') features an unusual degree of international cooperation. The burrowing heat probe was provided by the German Aerospace Center, and France's national space agency CNES led the consortium that developed the seismometer suite. [Mars InSight: NASA's Mission to Probe Red Planet's Core (Gallery)]