17:53
As we begin, you can see the proceedings in the video player at the top of the blog, which is now enabled for live coverage.
17:49
The news conference and questions and answers are expected to begin in about 15 minutes. We have a live video stream here in the live blog.
Read science correspondent Natalie Grover’s coverage from Thursday if you’re just catching up on yesterday’s important landing cover.
Nasa’s science traveler Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on Thursday and landed safely on the floor of a sprawling crater. It was his first stop looking for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet. .
Missionaries at Nasa’s jet propulsion laboratory near Los Angeles erupted in applause and cheers as radio signals confirmed that the six – wheeled robber had survived his dangerous descent and arrived within his target zone inside the Jezero crater, the place where a long bed had disappeared.

This NASA photo shows members of NASA’s Perseverance Mars robber crew watching in mission control as the first images arrive moments after the spacecraft successfully touched Mars on February 18, 2021 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Photo: Bill Ingalls / NASA / AFP / Getty Images
The robotic vehicle traveled through space for nearly seven months, traveling 473 km (473 km) before piercing the Martian atmosphere at 19,000 km / h to begin its approach to contact on the planet’s surface.
The self-directed descent and landing of the spacecraft during an intricate series of maneuvers that Nasa called ‘the seven minutes of terror’ is the most extensive and challenging achievement in the annals of space travel.
Read the full piece here:
Updated
17:45
Our photo editors have compiled a gallery of the best moments of endurance:
16:45
Nasa Presents Perseverance Rover News Conference
Members of the Nasa (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) team that will place a rover on Mars on Thursday are preparing to host a news conference and answer questions about the mission.
The wanderer, briefly called Perseverance of Percy, is on Mars to search for signs of ancient life and collect monsters to be returned by a future mission. The size of a car is equipped with cameras, microphones, drills and even a small helicopter.
Guardian science correspondent Natalie Grover reports on Percy’s mission:
Previous Mars missions, including Curiosity and Opportunity, suggested that Mars was once a wet planet with an environment that probably supported lifelong billions of years ago. Astrobiologists hope that this latest mission can provide evidence to prove that this was the case.
Nasa scientists seem to feel that they are terribly close to a discovery that could change the way we view the universe and our home in it. Here was the scene in the control room near Los Angeles on Thursday just before 1pm local time when Percy’s secure contact with Mars was confirmed:
The robotic vehicle traveled through space for nearly seven months, traveling 473 km (473 km) before piercing the Martian atmosphere at 19,000 km / h to begin its approach to contact on the planet’s surface.
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