On Sunday, May 6, 2018 at 11:50:27 AM UTC-4, Jeff Findley wrote:
In article , says...

On May/6/2018 at 12:45 AM, wrote :
"An Atlas 5 rocket soared into space early on Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force
Base in California, carrying NASA?s first robotic lander designed for exploring
the deep interior of another planet on its voyage to Mars."


"The new 800-pound (360-kg) spacecraft marks the 21st U.S.-launched Martian
exploration, dating to the Mariner fly-by missions of the 1960s. Nearly two dozen
other Mars missions have been launched by other nations.

Once settled, the solar-powered InSight will spend two years - about one Martian
year - plumbing the depths of the planet?s interior for clues to how Mars took
form and, by extension, the origins of the Earth and other rocky planets."

See:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-s...-idUSKBN1I60DF

Does anyone know why they are launching from the west coast? It seems to
me to be not optimal for a Mars mission.

To avoid launch congestion at Cape Canaveral and insure it was launched
at the optimal time. Also, the version of Atlas had plenty of
performance for the mission. InSight is only 800 lbs, so it's
relatively light for a Mars mission.

So did they launch it to the south or to the west? Going west they
would incur a big energy penalty due to the rotation of the Earth.