NASA's Mars Orbiter Is Making a Huge Maneuver

— -- NASA's next Mars lander won't even launch until next year, but the space agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is making a big move today to get ready.

The spacecraft will make its biggest maneuver today since 2006, undergoing a planned 77-second firing of six intermediate size thrusters.

According to NASA, the move is necessary to put the 10-year-old spacecraft in a position to receive radio signals from the InSight lander, which is set to launch next spring.

Think of it this way: NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is like the worried parent wanting to make sure their child, in this case, the InSight lander, safely makes it to their destination.

Without making the adjustment, NASA said it would have been unable to hear from Insight when it is expected to touch down on September 28, 2016.

"This will put us in the right place at the right time," Dan Johnston, a manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement.

When the big moment arrives, NASA will record InSight's transmission as it touches down on Mars for later playback on Earth. After its safely on the Red Planet, InSight will then get to work, examining the deep interior of Mars gathering clues about the evolution of rocky planets.