Curiosity & Parachute Photo from Mars Orbiter

NASA's Curiosity Rover Caught in the Act of Landing

NASA's Curiosity rover and its parachute were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as Curiosity descended to the surface on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
› Full image and caption

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August 06, 2012

PASADENA, Calif. - An image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the Curiosity rover still connected to its 51-foot-wide (almost 16 meter) parachute as it descended towards its landing site at Gale Crater.

"If HiRISE took the image one second before or one second after, we probably would be looking at an empty Martian landscape," said Sarah Milkovich, HiRISE investigation scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "When you consider that we have been working on this sequence since March and had to upload commands to the spacecraft about 72 hours prior to the image being taken, you begin to realize how challenging this picture was to obtain."

The image of Curiosity on its parachute can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia15978b.html
MORE: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-232&cid=release_2012-232&msource=12232

Sources: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology & NASA.

Other Blog Postings --

How to Follow 'Curiosity" Landing on Mars
>>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2012/08/how-to-follow-curiosity-landing-on-mars.html

'Curiosity' Rover Makes Daring Mars Landing; 1st Photo
>>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2012/08/curiosity-rover-makes-daring-mars.html

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