The spacecraft with solar arrays made in Goleta launched from Vandenberg AFB in 2018 This illustration shows NASA’s InSight spacecraft with its instruments deployed on the Martian surface. The solar arrays on the left and right sides of InSight were built by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems in Goleta and keep the craft powered for its mission. By Janene Scully, Noozhawk North County Editor | @JaneneScully January 16, 2021 | 9:38 p.m. The Mars InSight mole’s role will end, but other aspects of the mission will continue for another two years, NASA officials said. InSight — which stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport — launched aboard an Atlas V rocket that blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a foggy May 5, 2018, morning. It was the first interplanetary mission after hundreds of blastoffs from the base and was designed to study the interior of the Red Planet.