PASADENA, Calif. (AP/WTVA) -- NASA's robotic explorer called Curiosity is on Mars, beaming black-and-white images of the red planet.
Curiosity landed successfully in a crater overnight, drawing cheers, applause and some tears at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Over the next two years, the rover will travel the crater floor, scooping up soil and looking for signs of life.
The Mars Curiosity team leader says the new rover has ``landed in a nice flat spot.''
NASA's seventh landing on Mars is being called an engineering tour de force, using never-before-tried acrobatics with a Hollywood-style finish.
Cables delicately lowered the rover to the ground at two mph from a hovering rocket pack.
ATK Technologies officials say the lightweight composite heat shield, interstage adapter and boat tail sections of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V that launched Curiosity in November 2011 were built at plants in Utah and Iuka, Mississippi.
