Pied Type Photo of Curiosity and its parachute

Curiosity parachute — Through a remarkable combination of engineering and mathematics, NASA precisely positioned a second satellite orbiting Mars to capture Curiosity and its parachute during the descent to the surface. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

NASA continues to amaze. Not only did they slow Curiosity’s entry to a gentle 2 mph and set the car-sized rover down right on target on Mars, but they got a photo of the descent from a satellite overhead.

“Guess you could consider us the closest thing to paparazzi on Mars,” quipped Sarah Milkovich, investigation scientist at NASA JPL. “We definitely caught NASA’s newest celebrity in the act.”

The audacity of this mission — absolutely breathtaking.

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Curiosity lands on Mars! Way to go, NASA!!! (screenshots)

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4 thoughts on “Photo of Curiosity and its parachute”

Wow, once again your patience amazes me PT. I went looking for images like that this morning and they weren’t there!

PiedType says:

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 1:59 pm

My son sent me this one. When I got a glimpse of it last night (in the background on the JPL screen), I thought it was an artist’s conception. I was absolutely blown away to find it was an actual photo. Getting this shot is almost as amazing as all the contrivances it took to set Curiosity down in one piece.

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