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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) A NASA spacecraft sits on Mars to explore the interior of the planet.
The flight controllers announced that the InSight satellite had landed Monday after a perilous and supersonic descent into the red Martian sky. The confirmation was transmitted by radio signals that took more than eight minutes to cross the approximately 160 million kilometers between Mars and Earth.
There was no immediate word on whether the undercarriage was in good working order. NASA satellites around Mars will provide updates.
This is NASA's eighth landing on Mars since the 1976 Vikings. InSight with three legs and one arm will operate in the same place for the next two years. He landed within 600 km of NASA's Curiosity robot, which was until Monday the youngest robot operating in town.
2:47 p.m.
A NASA spacecraft performs a perilous supersonic descent through the atmosphere of Mars after six months of travel.
The flight controllers announced that the robotic geologist InSight had entered the Martian atmosphere Monday afternoon. It takes about six minutes for InSight to reach the surface and land, slowed down by a parachute and a descent of engines.
The updates arrive via radio signals that take more than eight minutes to cross the approximately 160 million kilometers (160 million kilometers) between Mars and Earth. The news is relayed by two mini-satellites that follow InSight since their launch in May.
This is the ninth attempt of NASA to land on Mars since the 1976 Vikings.
The last time NASA landed on Mars in 2012 with the Curiosity rover.
12
A NASA spacecraft is only hours away from landing on Mars.
The InSight lander is aiming for a Monday afternoon touchdown on what scientists and engineers hope to be a plain.
Everyone involved in the international $ 1 billion mission is naturally nervous. They say that they had trouble sleeping and that their stomachs started to turn.
It is a risky business to dive into the Martian atmosphere and land, even for the United States, the only country to succeed. This would be NASA's eighth landing on Mars.
3 o'clock in the morning
NASA's six-month trip from NASA to Mars is approaching its peak.
The InSight LG targeted a touchdown Monday afternoon, as worry grew among those involved in the international effort of a billion dollars.
The perilous descent of InSight through the Martian atmosphere has the belly turning and the nerves are stretched to the maximum. Although he was an old pro, NASA had not tried to land in Mars for six years.
The robotic geologist – designed to explore the mysterious interiors of Mars – must go from zero to three hundred and fifty kilometers (19,000 km / h) to zero in six flat minutes because it pierces the Martian atmosphere, pulls out a parachute , pulls his descent engines and lands on three legs.
It targets red plains, ideally low on rocks.
The overall success rate of the Earth on Mars is 40%.
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