NASA's small spaceship takes its first view of Mars

A red dot marks a big milestone for a small spaceship.

One of NASA's twins, MarCO CubeSat, has taken an iconic picture of Mars as it gets closer and closer to the red planet. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shared the picture on Monday, although the CubeSat captured the scene on October 2, three weeks ago.

Each CubeSat is about the size of a briefcase. MarCO-A is nicknamed "EVE", while MarCO-B is called "Wall-E". The twins launched in May as part of Mars Insight Mission of NASA.

These are the first CubeSats to venture into distant spaces, and NASA is curious to know if low-cost devices will survive the rigorous journey to Mars.

NASA intends to test the spacecraft to see if it can be used as a communication relay during the planned descent to the surface of Mars at the end of November.

The March coup was a test of CubeSat imaging capabilities. The planet was about 12.8 million kilometers away when MarCO-B took the picture.

"The cruising phase of the mission is always difficult, so you win all the little victories when they come in. Seeing the planet is definitely a big win for the team," said MarCO Mission Director Cody Colley .

MarCO-B watched the Earth and the Moon in mid-May.

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