Facing unfavorable odds, the U.S. scored a huge victory on Mars on Monday, landing the largest and most sophisticated mobile laboratory ever launched to another planet.
At an early-morning news conference, engineers engaged in high-fives, hugs and boisterous applause after NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory and the Curiosity rover survived a perilous seven-minute plunge to the surface of the red planet.
The 1:32 a.m. landing came two years late. The $2.5 billion mission came in $900 million over budget. And the very future of the nation’s Mars exploration program was at stake.
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