The one-ton Mars rover Curiosity has touched down near the Mars equator, and has begun relaying low-resolution images via the NASA Odyssey satellite orbiting the Red Planet.
The rover’s twitter feed announced “I’m safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!!”
Mission Control at the California Jet Propulsion Laboratory cheered after tense minutes of complicated maneuvering of the rover through the Mars atmosphere at an a entry speed of 12,000 mph some 350 million miles away from Earth. (BBC)