WATCH LIVE: NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover Prepares to Land on Mars at Approximately 3:55 p.m. ET
By Space Coast Daily // February 18, 2021
Coverage can be seen on Space Coast Daily TV
ABOVE VIDEO: Official Live Stream of NASA TV
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is set to make a historic landing on the Red Planet, with touchdown scheduled for approximately 3:55 p.m. ET on Thursday.
During landing, the rover will plunge through the thin Martian atmosphere at more than 12,000 mph (about 20,000 kph).
A parachute and powered descent will slow the rover down to about 2 mph (3 kph).
During what is known as the sky crane maneuver, the descent stage will lower the rover on three cables to land softly on six wheels at Jezero Crater.
Perseverance also is carrying a technology experiment – the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter – that will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.
“If there’s one thing we know, it’s that landing on Mars is never easy,” said NASA Associate Administrator for Communications Marc Etkind.
“But as NASA’s fifth Mars rover, Perseverance has an extraordinary engineering pedigree and mission team. We are excited to invite the entire world to share this exciting event with us!”
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