CLEVELAND — Cities across the United States, including Cleveland, are lighting up red to celebrate NASA's Perseverance Rover landing on Mars Thursday.
#CountdownToMars is underway, and cities all over the U.S. are lighting up the night in red to celebrate @NASAPersevere as the rover prepares to land on Mars, the Red Planet, tomorrow, Feb. 18.
— NASA Glenn Research (@NASAglenn) February 18, 2021
Find ways to watch, learn and celebrate with us:https://t.co/6nIFeMqW4I#Cleveland pic.twitter.com/rw4Oyr1kj7
The Terminal Tower shined bright red early Thursday morning.
No flying today... but here’s a shot of @TowerLightsCLE lit up in red as the Mars Perseverance Rover is expected to land on the Red Planet. pic.twitter.com/H3cza9fjYs
— Jon Rudder (@JonRudder) February 18, 2021
Due to Mars being located 200 million kilometers from Earth, it will take more than 11 minutes for the images to beam from Mars to Earth.
The craft is set to enter the Martian atmosphere at 12,000 mph, but a series of parachutes will slow the craft to 2 mph. Then, what is known as the sky crane maneuver, the descent stage will lower the rover on three cables to land softly on six wheels, NASA said.
NASA will begin live-streaming the landing at 2:15 p.m. EST.
To reach the surface of the Red Planet, the rover has to survive the harrowing final phase known as Entry, Descent, and Landing.
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