NASA's Curiosity rover lands on Mars via sky crane

On Aug. 6, 2012, NASA's Curiosity rover touched down on Mars using a novel rocket-powered sky crane, a first in space exploration. The car-sized, nuclear-powered rover landed in Gale Crater after a harrowing '7 minutes of terror,' surpassing previous landing methods. Its success paved the way for the Perseverance rover's 2021 landing, setting a new standard for planetary exploration.