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Watch video footage of Curiosity's final descent to Mars

Watch this video of Curiosity's final minutes before landing on Mars. Plus, see a photo of the rover hanging from a parachute, and a video of NASA engineers rejoicing.
Written by Laura Shin, Contributor

Wonder what it was like to be Curiosity in those final moments of its eight-and-a-half month journey, just as it was about to touch down on Mars?

You can find out through this video, which Mars Curiosity tweeted out Monday night with a message that began, "Look out below!"

The stop-motion video was created from 297 frames shot during the final two-and-a-half minutes before the rover touched down.

Curiosity also tweeted out a photo of itself being gently carried down to the Red Planet via parachute:

And check out the photos of the rover's first day in Mars. This gallery includes several shots in which the fisheye effect of the camera has been flattened out, giving us a view like what Curiosity actually sees. Plus there's a spectacular view of Mount Sharp, which Curiosity will climb during its two-year assignment, as well as Curiosity's first color photos.

And once again, to remind us of how sweet this victory was, let's take a look at how the NASA control room celebrated when they knew for certain that Curiosity had successfully landed:

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via: Mashable

Photo: MarsCuriosity/Twitter

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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