Mars Day
Late last night, "seven minutes of terror" turned into hours of celebratory high-fiving and cheers, after the Mars Science Laboratory -- the Curiosity rover -- successfully landed in Gale Crater. By lunchtime, NASA released this image taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, showing the rover parachuting to the surface, just before the heat shield was jettisoned, the rockets fired, and the sky crane lowered our newest emissary to the red planet. Within minutes, we saw images of a rover wheel on the ground. As the JPL team noted in today's press conference, "You actually see the surface of the planet with the spacecraft on it. And that's the miracle of engineering."
NASA/JPL/MRO
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