26 November 2018: NASA JPL’s 6U MarCO-A and MarCO-B Relay Real-Time InSight Mars Landing Telemetry Across 160 Million km
Launched with InSight on 5 May 2018, the twin 13.5 kg 6U CubeSats MarCO-A and MarCO-B navigated to Mars and relayed real-time EDL telemetry on 26 Nov 2018.
On 26 November 2018, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory proved that CubeSat architecture is not confined to Low Earth Orbit when the twin 6U spacecraft Mars Cube One (MarCO-A and MarCO-B) executed a flyby of Mars at a heliocentric range of 160 million km from Earth.
During their 6.5-month interplanetary cruise following launch from Vandenberg on Atlas V, both 6U buses performed trajectory correction maneuvers using Vacco cold-gas (R-236fa) micro-propulsion systems and maintained 3-axis pointing with Blue Canyon XACT star-tracker/reaction-wheel units.
During InSight’s seven-minute entry, descent, and landing (EDL), MarCO deployed a high-gain X-band reflectarray flat-panel antenna and a UHF loop antenna, receiving InSight’s 8 kbps UHF telemetry and immediately retransmitting it to the 70 m Deep Space Network dish in Madrid.
CELESTRAK SATCAT & TELEMETRY RECORD
Verified Spacecraft Key Facts & Orbital Dossier
| Spacecraft | Class | Operator / Country | Launch & Vehicle | NORAD / COSPAR | Orbit & RF Downlink | Catalog Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MarCO-A / MarCO-B | 6U | NASA JPL US | Atlas V 401 (InSight) | Unassigned | Heliocentric (Mars flyby) X | Completed |
Catalogued Mission Summaries & Flight Notes
- MarCO-A / MarCO-B (6U, 2018):
- The first interplanetary CubeSats. They relayed InSight’s landing data of 26 November 2018 in near real time. Last contact: WALL-E on 29 Dec 2018, EVE on 4 Jan 2019. The mission was ended in February 2019.