NASA releases Mars landing video: ‘Stuff of our dreams’
Marcia DunnAP Aerospace WriterNASA released the first high-quality video Monday, Feb. 22, of a spacecraft landing on Mars, a three-minute trailer showing the enormous orange and white parachute hurtling open and the red dust kicking up as rocket engines lowered the rover to the surface.The footage was so good – and the images so breathtaking – that members of the rover team said they felt like they were riding along.“It gives me goosebumps every time I see it, just amazing,” Dave Gruel, head of the entry and descent camera team, said.The Perseverance rover landed Thursday, Feb. 18, near an ancient river delta in Jezero Crater to search for signs of ancient microscopic life. After spending the weekend binge-watching the descent and landing video, the team at Jet