Hurtling toward the surface of Mars at about 12,000 mph, Perseverance entered its atmosphere at 3:48 p.m. Feb. 18. Over seven nail-biting minutes, the spacecraft began a carefully choreographed sequence of disassembling itself, slowing down and guiding itself to a landing site on the Jezero Crater, which is only 4.8 miles wide.

After deploying its parachute, the spacecraft shed its heat shield and back shell. Using a terrain-relative navigation system to guide the spacecraft toward the landing site, its eight retrorockets fired up to slow the craft down more. Once it was 65 feet from the landing site, Perseverance was lowered to the surface.

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