World

The robotic explorer Curiosity's daring plunge through the pink skies of Mars was more than perfect. It landed with spectacular style, said a NASA scientist who described the first images of its gymnastics through the so-called "seven minutes of terror."

Hours after the U.S. space agency learned the rover had arrived on target late Sunday, engineers and scientists got the first glimpses of the intricate manoeuvres it made to hit the Martian soil safely.

"It's a spectacular image," said NASA research scientist Luther Beegle. The photo, taken from an orbiting Mars spacecraft, shows Curiosity dangling from its supersonic parachute as it descended.

Extraordinary efforts were needed for the landing because the rover weighs about one tonne, and the Martian atmosphere is very thin, not offering much friction to slow the spacecraft down.

The arrival was an engineering tour de force, debuting never-before-tried acrobatics as Curiosity sliced through the Martian atmosphere at 20,900 km/h.

More images, including video of the landing and beautiful colour shots of Mars, will follow in days to come. It will be weeks before Curiosity starts digging into the red planet's past.

Cheers and applause echoed through the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory after signals from space indicated Curiosity had survived the plunge.

"Touchdown confirmed," said engineer Allen Chen. "We're safe on Mars."

Minutes after the landing signal reached Earth, Curiosity beamed back the first black-and-white pictures from inside the crater showing its wheel and its shadow, cast by the afternoon sun.

"We landed in a nice flat spot. Beautiful, really beautiful," said engineer Adam Steltzner, who led the team that devised the landing routine.

It was NASA's seventh landing on Earth's neighbour; many attempts by the U.S. and other countries to zip past, circle or set down on Mars have gone awry.

In a Hollywood-style finish, cables delicately lowered the rover to the ground at a snail-paced 3.2 km/h. A video camera was set to capture the most dramatic moments.

JPL Director Charles Elachi compared the team to Olympic athletes.

"This team came back with the gold," he said.

Gilles Leclerc, director-general of space exploration at the Canadian Space Agency, said workers there were celebrating as well, having spent years working on a device aboard Curiosity that will help look for signs of life.

"Well, we are Canadians, eh? So it was less enthusiastic but I would say it was as emotional as it was in the U.S. But there were cheers indeed and it was again a great moment."

Still, he said from Longueuil, Que., there were some tense moments.

"The seven minutes of terror that we had been told to expect turned into a triumph in the end because it was a very daring landing technique and it was successful ... so we were all very ecstatic."

The extraterrestrial feat injected a much-needed boost to NASA, which is debating whether it can afford another robotic Mars landing this decade. At a budget-busting $2.5 billion, Curiosity is the priciest gamble yet, which scientists hope will pay off with a bonanza of discoveries and pave the way for astronaut landings.

President Barack Obama called the landing "an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future."

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