The Curiosity rover completed an eight-month mission on Monday and successfully landed in the Gale Crater region of Mars, NASA said in a statement on its website. The head of the US space agency, Charles Bolden, noted that this event is “a great day for the country.” US President Barack Obama congratulated all NASA employees on his successful mission on his Twitter microblog.

The moment the rover landed at NASA's mission control center was greeted with a standing ovation. The camera installed on Curiosity has already transmitted the first two images to Earth, which show the vehicle’s wheel on the ground.

The rover is currently sending telemetry information and temperature and pressure data to the landing site using the Mars Odyssey orbiter.

The most critical and dangerous part of the expedition has been completed, RIA Novosti notes . A new "sky crane" landing technology that NASA called "crazy" has successfully completed "field testing."

Curiosity will gradually turn on scientific instruments on board to conduct detailed geological and geochemical studies, study the atmosphere and climate of Mars, and search for water and organic matter. This data will help determine whether Mars was once suitable for life, and whether there are places on it suitable for life now.

The rover is a key part of the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory project. Curiosity is comparable in size to a small car, weighing about 900 kg. 10 scientific instruments with a total mass of 75 kg are installed on board the device.

Curiosity could become a new Martian long-liver - its energy source is not solar panels, but a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. The “nuclear battery” can supply it with energy for 14 years and will make it independent of both the season and the weather.

Curiosity's journey to Mars began on November 26, 2011 at Cape Canaveral Space Launch Center. At this moment, there was a distance of 204 million km between Earth and Mars. The device had to cover 567 million km to “catch up” with the planet.

Curiosity rover successfully lands on Mars