The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced that it has extended the research program of eight space missions because of their scientific productivity and high potential for gaining knowledge about the solar system and the universe.
It’s about the Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, Curiosity rover, InSight seismographic lander, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter orbiting the Moon, OSIRIS-REx and New Horizons, which flew past Pluto and headed beyond the solar system.
Most of these missions have been extended for three years, except OSIRIS-REx, which will last at least nine years for a new mission, and InSight, which will run until the end of 2022, unless its electrical system allows more. The OSIRIS-REx probe was sent to the asteroid Bennu in September 2016 and is scheduled to return to Earth in 2023, while the InSight lander has been on the surface of Mars since 2018.