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Touchdown! NASA’s Rover Perseverance Lands Safely on Red Planet

Perseverance makes it through its “7 Minutes of Terror” to safely land on the Martian surface.

First Image of Mars
Perseverance Rover's First Image from Mars: This is the first image NASA’s Perseverance rover sent back after touching down on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021. The view, from one of Perseverance’s Hazard Cameras, is partially obscured by a dust cover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Members of NASA’s Perseverance rover team react in mission control after receiving confirmation the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Cheers erupted from the Mars Perseverance EDL (Entry Descent Landing) war room as the rover completed its “7 Minutes of Terror” (a nickname for the 7 minutes of EDL where literally thousands of things have to go right) to safely land in the Jezero crater. The rover captured its entire Entry Descent and Landing on camera and is expected to transmit the video back to Earth later today.