This morning at around 1:15 a.m. EDT, the rover dubbed "Curiosity", part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, touched down safely on the surface of the red planet, in the Aeolis Palus region of Gale Crater. The spacecraft had spent over 8 months in transit between Earth and Mars. Due to the finite speed of radio waves (the same as the speed of light), NASA learned of the successful landing at around 1:30, upon which Curiosity's human controllers broke out in celebration.
Curiosity is about twice as long and 5 times as massive as the earlier Spirit and Opportunity rovers, and is intended to stay in operation for one Martian year.
While descending, Curiosity was photographed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The landing included a rather complicated series of operations, as shown in this video.
Read more at the Washington Post, Space.com, the Wall Street Journal, Wired Science, Yahoo News and National Geographic. You can also follow Curiosity on Twitter.
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