Employees at Aerojet Rocketdyne in Redmond, Washington watched Monday as their work helped NASA's InSight Lander make a historic touchdown on Mars. KING 5's Glenn Farley was there as 130 workers eagerly anticipated the landing.
Aerojet Rocketdyne (AR) has been around for 50 years and its rocket engines have been involved with nearly every NASA program since the beginning. But now the company has become part of the larger Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. with factories in places like California and Florida.
The Mars landing was executed by 12 MR-107N engines, built at the Redmond factory. The engines are controlled by computers and maintained the lander's stability on its final, slow descent to the surface.
But other parts of the company have also been involved, including during the May 5th launch. AR provided the RL10C-1 Centaur upper stage engine, along with another dozen MR-106 RCS thrusters to help lift the Atlas V rocket out of Earth’s gravitational pull.
During cruise, the company’s MR-111C thrusters helped keep the spacecraft on course over the six-month trip.
During approach, more MR-11C and MR-106B thrusters helped adjust the spacecraft's attitude to maintain power and communications.
While InSight is on Mars, the stationary 800-pound lander will use its 6-foot robotic arm to place a mechanical mole and seismometer on the ground. The self-hammering mole will burrow 16 feet down to measure the planet's internal heat, while the seismometer listens for possible quakes.
No previous lander has dug deeper than several inches, and no seismometer has ever worked on Mars. InSight has no life-detecting capability, however. That will be left to future rovers.
NASA's Mars 2020 mission, for instance, will collect rocks that will eventually be brought back to Earth and analyzed for evidence of ancient life.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
