NASA launches mission to explore below Mars' surface

NASA has launched a probe to Mars as part of a mission to find out more about the planet’s internal structure and see if life may once have existed there.

The InSight mission was launched on an Atlas V-401 rocket from California in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Only 40 percent of all missions sent to Mars have been successful due to extremes of temperature and its very thin atmosphere.

If all goes well NASA will place a single lander on the surface and drill down to unravel the mysteries around the core.

Both Earth and Mars were formed at the same time more than 4.5 billion years ago but have evolved into being very different planets.  The InSight mission is hoping to find out why.