Washington (dpa) - NASA is due to land a probe on Mars for the first time in more than six years on Monday and begin a mission to explore the planet deep into its core.

The InSight probe is scheduled to begin its final descent just before 3 pm (2000 GMT) on Monday, marking NASA’s first Mars landing since the Curiosity rover in August 2012.

NASA scientists admitted Sunday to being “a little bit nervous” about the landing but also said they felt confident it would be a success.

“We recognize that you never take Mars for granted. Mars is hard,” Thomas Zurbuchen, a lead administrator at NASA headquarters in Washington, said at a news conference.

InSight was launched in May and has travelled more than 484 million kilometres to reach Mars.