After nearly seven months of travelling over 4800 lakh kilometres of empty space, NASA's Mars InSight Lander finally made a successful landing on the Red Planet, the eighth historic manmade object to land on our neighbouring planet.
And right on cue, the newest manmade rover on Martian soil has sent back its first two pics of the alien world.
NASA
InSight's mission is to study the interior of Mars and throw light on valuable science, as NASA prepares to send astronauts to the Moon and later to Mars. "The best of NASA is yet to come, and it is coming soon."
A few minutes after landing, the InSight Lander sent the official "beep" to NASA to message that it had survived the journey and made it alive onto Mars, including a grainy photo of the Martian surface where it touched down.
But minutes later, NASA Mars InSight rover sent back this majestic picture of the Martian horizon, posting it on its official Twitter account no less.
This is surely just the beginning of a lot more that InSight is expected to during its two year mission on Mars, where it will drill holes inside the Martian surface and hunt for clues and attempt to find answers how humans one day might live on the Red Planet.
"Landing was thrilling, but I¡¯m looking forward to the drilling," said InSight principal investigator Bruce Banerdt from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
InSight has already deployed its two decagonal solar arrays, which span seven feet each and provide the craft¡¯s operational power supply, according to a NASA statement.?