InSight Mission Lands On Mars, Beams Back First Photo From Its New Home
After an epic journey that lasted seven months and carried it more than 300 million miles through space, NASA’s historic InSight mission has finally landed on Mars.
The InSight Mars lander touched down on Elysium Planitia, just north of the Martian equator, at around 2.54 p.m. EST earlier today — and has already sent home its first photo from its new home.
According to NASA, mission engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, have picked up a radio signal — either coming from the InSight lander or from one of the two MarCO mini-satellites accompanying the mission — which let them know that the spacecraft has made contact with the Martian soil.
Over the next few hours, the mission’s team will be monitoring all radio communications coming from the InSight landing site to make sure that the spacecraft is in good health and ready to start its pioneering mission.
