NASA hails historic Mars landing of its most scientific science rover

Washington, Feb 19: NASA has hailed the historic Mars landing of its largest and most sophisticated science rover as the spacecraft Perseverance touched down in an ancient river delta that may contain signs of whether the planet has ever harboured microbial life.

There were cheers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, when the flight controllers received a signal. Rob Manning, chief engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said that they put their arms together and hands together and our brains together, that we can succeed.

Perseverance, the biggest, most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, became the ninth spacecraft to successfully land on Mars, every one of them from the U.S., beginning in the 1970s. The car-size, plutonium-powered vehicle arrived at Jezero Crater, hitting NASA's smallest and trickiest target yet: a 5--by-4-mile strip on an ancient river delta full of pits, cliffs and fields of rock.