After an eight month journey NASA's nuclear-powered Mars rover
Curiosity has landed safely. The rover is to embark on an ambitious
mission to uncover whether the planet could once have supported life.The Mars science rover Curiosity landed on the Martian surface shortly after 0530 GMT on Monday.
It is to begin a two-year mission seeking evidence that there was once life on the Red Planet.
Mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles said they received signals relayed by a Martian orbiter confirming that the rover had survived the landing and had touched down as planned inside a crater.
NASA Marsmission Rover Curiosity landed as planned
"Touchdown confirmed," said a member of mission control as the room erupted in cheers."I can't believe this. This is unbelievable," said Allen Chen, deputy leader of the rover's team for descent and landing as three pictures of Mars' rocky terrain were received at mission control.
Celebrations around the world
Five hundred scientists, students and space enthusiasts were watching the landing at the European Space Agency's mission agency base in Darmstadt, Germany. And in the Unites States, including New York's Times Square, fans gathered to watch a live broadcast. American President Barack Obama referred to the landing as “an unprecedented feat of technology."
"The successful landing of Curiosity -the most sophisticated roving laboratory ever to land on another planet- marks an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future," Obama said in a statement.
