Watch NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover Land at 12:55pm

By San Diego Entertainer | February 18, 2021

NASA’s Perseverance rover was launched into space on July 30, 2020 and will land on Mars today. Touchdown is set for 12:55 p.m. PST and can be watched here:

According to NASA, the rover’s final descent follows a nearly 7-month voyage to the Red Planet. Once there, it will search Jezero Crater for signs of ancient life. The rover will spend at least two years exploring the crater, collect samples for a future mission to return to Earth and to deliver the first helicopter to another world.

NASA‘s webcast for today’s landing begins at 11:15 a.m. and will run through the landing. A post-landing press conference is expected at about 2:30 p.m.

About Perseverance Rover

The car-sized Perseverance rover is about 10 feet
long (not including the arm), 9 feet wide, and 7 feet tall. Weighing in at
2,260 pounds it is “the biggest, heaviest, cleanest, and most sophisticated six-wheeled robot ever launched into space,” according to NASA.

Perseverance is the most sophisticated rover NASA has ever sent to the Red Planet, “with a name that embodies NASA’s passion, and our nation’s capability, to take on and overcome challenges.” Perseverance is also ferrying cutting-edge technology including a helicopter named Ingenuity, the first aircraft to attempt powered, controlled flight on another planet.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission carries more cameras than any interplanetary mission in history, with 19 cameras on the rover itself and four on other parts of the spacecraft involved in entry, descent, and landing. As with previous Mars missions, the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission plans to make raw and processed images available on the mission’s website.

You can follow Perseverance’s adventure on social media via @NASAPersevere and @NASAMars on Twitter and Facebook, and the hashtag #CountdownToMars.