NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars

NASA’s Curiosity rover touched down in Mars’ Gale Crater late on August 5, 2012 Pacific time—the early hours of August 6 on the U.S. East Coast. “Touchdown confirmed. We’re safe on Mars!” a controller announced as cheers erupted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Landing the car-sized, roughly one-ton rover demanded a maneuver never tried before. After a supersonic parachute slowed its plunge, a rocket-powered “sky crane” hovered and lowered Curiosity to the surface on cables, then flew off to crash a safe distance away.

NASA called the descent the “seven minutes of terror,” because every step had to work perfectly with no chance to intervene from Earth.

Curiosity’s mission was to learn whether Gale Crater could ever have supported microbial life. It soon found evidence of an ancient, habitable lake environment—and the sky-crane method it pioneered later delivered the Perseverance rover too.