spacetoday.net: Perseverance lands on Mars

Perseverance lands on Mars

Posted: Fri, Feb 19, 2021, 6:59 PM ET (2359 GMT)
Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing illustration (NASA/JPL)

NASA's Perseverance rover successfully landed on Mars Thursday. Signals confirming a safe touchdown of the rover in Jezero Crater, Mars, arrived at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at 3:55 pm EST (2055 GMT), indicating that the spacecraft had aced the "seven minutes of terror" of its entry, descent and landing there. The rover is in good health, project officials said shortly after landing. The $2.7 billion mission will soon start efforts to look for evidence of past Martian life, including collecting samples for later return to Earth. The rover also carries some technology demonstrations, such as a small helicopter that will be deployed for flight tests this spring.