NASA Mars mission: Perseverance rover successfully lands on red planet

Perseverance, the biggest, most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, stood to become the ninth spacecraft to successfully land on Mars

The NASA Perseverance rover has successfully landed on Mars on Thursday in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on the red planet.

Ground controllers at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, settled in nervously for the descent of Perseverance to the surface of Mars, long a deathtrap for incoming spacecraft. It took a nail-biting 11 and 1/2 minutes to confirm its success.

The landing of the six-wheeled vehicle marked the third visit to Mars in just over a week. Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China swung into orbit around