After eight months and 350 million miles, all eyes were on Mars and the car-sized Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft as it entered the Martian atmosphere shortly after 9 am and touched down on the surface at 9:32 pm Alaska Time.

The lander didn’t communicate directly to earth during its landing, that was celebrated with mass congratulations here on earth, instead it relayed through NASA’s orbiting Mars Odyssey that changed direction in the minutes before landing, going through complicated manouvers to beam a signal back to earth.

The MSL spacecraft hurdled toward Mars at over 8,000 miles an hour, and that is slow compared to the speeds it reached as Mars’ gravvitational pull coaxed the lander ever closer. During its entry, prior to touchdown, the craft attained speeds of 13,200 miles per hour.

The first weeks of the mission on Mars will be a gradual ramp up of science activities, as the team of scientists hone their operating skills with the “Curiosity”. Some of the tasks set before the robot will be to scale part-way up a Martian mountain, named Mount Sharp.

In the most complicated touch-down ever attempted on the red planet, it was hands-off as the equipment onboard the craft handled the landing autonomously, utilizing pre-set commands.

As the craft closed in on the atmosphere, the Cruise Balance Devices separated just prior to the craft entering the atmosphere at about 78 miles above the surface of the planet. Soon, at about seven miles in altitude,the parachute deployed as the craft decelerated from 900 mph to 280 mph.

At about 5 miles above the surface, the heat shield that protected the craft through the hottest part of its descent separated. At one mile in altitude, the back shell separated from the craft and the laboratory began the rest of its descent slowed by thrusters in a powered descent.

At just above the surface, about 66 feet, as the craft was traveling less than two miles per hour downward, a sky crane deployed lowering the robot to the martian surface before the craft detached and did a fly away.

News of the successful touchdown was transmitted back to earth from the Mars Odyssey orbitor and received by the Deep Space Network in Canberra, Australia antenna station. A few moments after the touchdown occurred, the martian laboratory transmitted 64×64 thumbnail image of the surface from Curiousity causing the cheering at the center to reach an even higher cresendo.

During its two year mission, Curiosity will look for clues to determine if the planet has ever sported the conditions that favored life on the planet. It will also look for the chemical ingredients for life on the planet.

This newest mobile laboratory is twice as long ang five times heavier than the previous two rovers placed on the Martian surface. I carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times larger than the payloads on those previous crafts.