Redmond Rocket Geniuses Made NASA's Mars InSight Mission

REDMOND, WA - A Redmond company gave a significant boost to the landing of NASA's InSight Mars vehicle, which successfully touched down on the red planet Monday.

Aerojet Rocketdyne, which has had a facility in Redmond for almost 20 years, built propulsion systems for every step of the mission. The company's technology helped launch InSight into space six months ago, and helped complete the tricky martian landing on Monday.

Here's how the company explained its contributions in a May press release:

During its six-month transit to Mars, InSight will be guided by eight Aerojet Rocketdyne cruise engines, which will make precise burns—some preplanned, others as necessary—to ensure an accurate orbital arrival to the red planet. These engines are contained in four Rocket Engine Modules, each consisting of one MR-111C and one MR-106E, generating one and five pounds of thrust, respectively.

InSight will rely on six pairs of Aerojet Rocketdyne MR-107N engines, each engine generating 50 pounds of pulsed thrust, to bring it to the Martian surface in a controlled manner. Before touchdown, the engines will have to steer InSight clear of the parachute, lest it come down on top of the lander. Once that is accomplished, the thrusters will slow InSight to a speed of about 10 kilometers per hour, enabling a soft touchdown.

The company's Redmond location specializes in designing liquid propulsion systems and building hardware for NASA missions.

Caption: The Atlas 5 rocket carrying the Mars InSight probe launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base, as seen from the San Gabriel Mountains more than 100 miles away, on May 5, near Los Angeles. The InSight probe is the first NASA lander designed entirely to study the deep interior structure of Mars.

Photo by David McNew/Getty Images