Laboratory late Sunday after the most high-tech interplanetary
rover ever built signaled it had survived a harrowing plunge
through the thin Mars atmosphere. "Touchdown confirmed," said
engineer Allen Chen. "We're safe on Mars." Minutes after the
landing signal reached Earth at 10:32 p.m. PDT (0532 GMT),
Curiosity beamed back the first black-and-white pictures from
inside the crater showing its wheel and its shadow, cast by the
afternoon sun. Hundreds watch the images from Mars on the big
screen beamed by Nasa's Curiosity rover which landed at the US
Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. AP/The Huntsville
Times, Eric Schultz "We landed in a nice flat spot. Beautiful,
really beautiful," said engineer Adam Steltzner, who led the
team that devised the tricky landing routine. It was NASA's
seventh landing on Earth's neighbor; many other attempts by the
U.S. and other countries to zip past, circle or set down on Mars
have gone awry. In this 2011 file artist's rendering, a "sky
crane" lowers the Mars Science