I'm safely on Mars, says rover tweet

"I'm safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!!," said an ecstatic tweet after the rover landed safely on Mars.

Moments earlier, another tweet said: "Backshell separation. It's just you & me now, descent stage. Engage all retrorockets!"

The critical tweets began with the one saying: "Guided entry is begun. Here I go!".

Less than a minute later, another said: "Parachute deployed! Velocity 900 mph. Altitude 7 miles. 4 minutes to Mars!".

And then it said: "Heatshield separation. Next up: Radar must lock on ground."

Soon after landing on Mars, the rover beamed its first photograph which showed a shadow of the rover on the red planet.

"It once was one small step... now it's six big wheels. Here's a look at one of them on the soil of Mars," added a tweet that referred to astronaut Neil Armstrong's famous words "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" after he set foot on moon.