NORFOLK, Va. (Tribune News Service) A puddle, melted into a chair. That’s how Henry Wright, a rover project manager at NASA Langley, described his condition after Thursday’s nail-biter touchdown of the Perseverance on Mars. The local research center was heavily involved in the final challenge of the rover’s 6½-month journey: Getting the complex, car-sized robot on the ground in one functioning piece. Known as EDL for entry, descent and landing it’s the most hazardous point of the mission, when the vehicle that’s carried the rover nearly 300 million miles transforms itself from a spacecraft into something more like a bullet, plunging toward the surface at 12,000 mph.
NASA Langley catches its breath after Mars rover touchdown - then gets back to work
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NASA Langley catches its breath after Mars rover touchdown - then gets back to work
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