Scenes from Perseverance landing on Mars(11 images)

NASA's Perseverance rover landed safely on Mars on Thursday, making it the fifth NASA rover to reach the Red Planet. The rover transmitted a series of brief signals and the first photo back to Earth telling the NASA control room it made a safe landing. Here's a look at some key moments.

Members of NASA's Perseverance rover team react in mission control, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., after receiving confirmation the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars on Thursday. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

The first photo taken by Perseverance after landing on the Martian surface, where the rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, paving the way for human exploration. It will be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. Photo courtesy of NASA | License Photo

The rover team study data on monitors in mission control. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

Perseverance flight director Magdy Bareh moves the final marble from the Perseverance Mars rover Earth launch jar to the Mars landing in a conference room of the Mission Support Area, where the Perseverance Mars rover team has been moving one marble a day since launch from jar to jar. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

The rover traveled over 203 days and 290 million miles to reach its destination, monitored by scientists around the world. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, tears apart the contingency plan during the post-landing briefing. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Science Mission Directorate's Planetary Science Division, wears Mars earrings. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

NASA Perseverance rover mission management and scientists celebrate a successful landing on Mars at the start of a post-landing update. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

This image shows where Perseverance landed in the Jezero Crater. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

A NASA Mars Rover Landing banner is seen on the One Times Square video board in New York City, as Perseverance descended toward the surface of Mars, on Thursday. Photo by Emma Howells/NASA | License Photo

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