NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance made a smooth landing on Mars on Thursday after seven months in space. The mission is aimed at finding ancient microbial life on the red planet.

Operations lead Swati Mohan confirmed the touchdown amid loud cheers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena at around 3:55 pm Eastern Time (2055 GMT). The landing had taken place 11 minutes earlier. However, the lapse in confirmation was due to time taken by the rover in sending out radio signals.

Shortly after landing, a picture of the rocky planet was tweeted by Nasa’s Perseverance Mars Rover’s Twitter handle with the caption – Hello, world. My first look at my forever home.

This is US space agency’s most advanced rover so far. Following the landing, space agency’s administrator Steve Jurczyk issued a statement hailing the achievement. He said this landing is one of those pivotal moments for NASA, the United States, and space exploration globally – when we know we are on the cusp of discovery and sharpening our pencils, so to speak, to rewrite the textbooks.

The statement said that the rover will undergo testing for several weeks before it embarks on its two-year-mission. The Mars rover Perseverance will conduct tests to  investigate the rock and sediment of Jezero’s ancient lakebed and Jezero’s river delta in a bid to determine the climate and analyse the geology of the region. The rover will also try to find out if life ever existed the red planet.

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The landing was hailed by US President Joe Biden who tweeted that it has been proven once again that with the power of science and American ingenuity nothing is beyond the realm of possibility. He also congratulated the scientists whose hard work made Perseverance’s historic landing possible.

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