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Spirit Lands On Mars and Sends Postcards
A traveling robotic geologist from NASA has landed on Mars and returned stunning images of the area around its landing site in Gusev Crater.
Mars Exploration Rover Spirit successfully sent a radio signal after the spacecraft had bounced and rolled for several minutes following its initial impact at 11:35 p.m. EST (8:35 p.m. Pacific Standard Time) on January 3.
"This is a big night for NASA," said NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe. "We're back. I am very, very proud of this team, and we're on Mars."
Members of the mission's flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., cheered and clapped when they learned that NASA's Deep Space Network had received a post-landing signal from Spirit. The cheering resumed about three hours later when the rover transmitted its first images to Earth, relaying them through NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.
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First Look at Spirit on Mars
This mosaic image taken by the navigation camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows a 360 degree panoramic view of the rover on the surface of Mars.
First Look Behind Spirit
This image taken by the hazard avoidance camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rover's rear lander petal and, in the background, the Martian horizon. Spirit took the picture right after successfully landing on the surface of Mars.
First Look at Spirit at Landing Site
This is one of the first images beamed back to Earth shortly after the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landed on the red planet.
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