Skip to main content

Relive NASA’s extraordinary Mars rover landing, one year on

On Friday, February 18, it will be a year to the day since NASA’s Perseverance rover made its extraordinary landing on Mars.

Extraordinary not only for NASA’s feat of successfully landing its most advanced rover to date on the red planet but also for the simply stunning video footage that showed the vehicle in its final stages of descent.

Related Videos

Thanks to a multitude of high-definition cameras fixed to the descent stage (also called the skycrane) and Perseverance itself, the video provided the best view ever seen of a human-made object landing on the surface of another celestial body.

The final moments of Perseverance’s six-month voyage from Earth were described by NASA as “seven minutes of terror,” so crucial and challenging was the all-important descent onto Mars’ Jezero Crater.

Exactly a year on, we thought it’d be fun to take another look at the footage showing that incredible landing. It features Mission Control’s audio feed together with the team’s ecstatic celebrations when confirmation of the successful touchdown came through.

Perseverance Rover’s Descent and Touchdown on Mars (Official NASA Video)

The diagram below shows the three sections that made the landing possible, and also shows the position of all of the cameras that captured the final stages of Perseverance’s descent.

The cameras that captured Perserverance's Mars landing in February 2020.
NASA

The footage starts with the deployment of the parachute linked to the back shell. A short while later, we see the heat shield, which protected Perseverance from its high-speed entry into Mars’ atmosphere, falling to the ground.

Just 2o meters from the surface, Martian dust is kicked up by the descent stage’s thrusters, which enable it to hover as it carefully lowers Perseverance to the ground.

As the rover’s six wheels make contact with Mars for the first time, we see the descent stage release the attached cables and rapidly fly away.

Below is another video of the landing featuring extra footage.

Perseverance Rover’s Descent and Touchdown on Mars (Official NASA Video)

After setting down on Mars, Perseverance beamed back the first 360-degree view of its new surroundings.

NASA’S Perseverance Rover’s First 360 View of Mars (Official)

Since then, NASA’s rover has been exploring Jezero Crater as it searches for signs of ancient microbial life and collects rock samples for return to Earth in a later mission. Perseverance also brought with it Ingenuity, a drone-like helicopter that last April became the first aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet.

Editors' Recommendations

NASA, SpaceX delay Crew-6 launch to space station
SpaceX's Crew-6 astronauts.

Following a flight readiness review on Tuesday, NASA and SpaceX have decided to delay the Crew-6 launch to the International Space Station by about 24 hours.

The additional time will enable launch personnel to sort out some relatively minor issues with the launch vehicle, officials said.

Read more
It’s been 2 years since the Perseverance rover landed on Mars
This image of the floor of Jezero Crater was taken by one of the Navcam imagers aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on Feb. 5, the 698th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

Today marks the second anniversary since the rover Perseverance landed on the surface of Mars on February 18, 2021. The nail-biting descent and landing process was followed around the world, and was particularly memorable because of the spectacular video taken from both the rover and its descent stage showing the touchdown onto the red planet.

In the two Earth years since Perseverance arrived on Mars, it has collected samples of rock and built a sample depot, deployed the Mars helicopter Ingenuity, created oxygen from the carbon dioxide atmosphere, recorded the sounds of Mars for the first time, trundled along the floor of the Jezero crater and made its way toward the site of an ancient river delta, and taken some stunning images.

Read more
NASA’s Mars helicopter aces longest flight in almost a year
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter.

NASA’s Mars helicopter recently aced its 43rd flight, one that turned out to be its longest in almost a year.

During the February 11 flight, Ingenuity traveled 1,280 feet (390 meters) across the martian surface for 146 seconds, reaching a maximum altitude of 40 feet (12 meters) while reaching a top speed of 8.9 mph (4 meters per second). The flight was a repositioning mission in preparation for providing further assistance to NASA’s Perseverance rover as it continues to explore Jezero Crater.

Read more