NASA will not launch an unmanned mission to Mars before 2018, as per an announcement made by the US space agency on Wednesday. The decision has been taken citing a leak in a key component of the agency’s Mars spacecraft.

The Mars InSight mission, also known as Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, may have a launch window in May of 2018, NASA announced. The agency also stated that if everything goes as per plan, the spacecraft will land on the Red Planet in November 2018.

NASA’s InSight Mars mission will be launched with an aim to understand the deep interior of the planet. The space agency believes data collected by the spacecraft may reveal how solar system’s rocky planets, including our earth, have formed.

The science objectives of the Mars mission are compelling, said NASA associate administrator John Grunsfeld. He also said that the InSight mission’s chances to overcome the technical challenges are extremely good.

“The quest to understand the interior of Mars has been a longstanding goal of planetary scientists for decades. We're excited to be back on the path for a launch, now in 2018”, Grunsfeld continued.

As per NASA, scientists working on the project have planned to start working on a science instrument, the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, which failed three months back.

The space agency had planned to launch the InSight mission this month, but it announced in December that a vacuum leak in a key component of the spacecraft may cause a delay. The failed instrument will play a major role in Mars exploration. It will help discover about the interior structure and processes within the deep Martian interior, as per the NASA.