Liftoff Videos

Every mission, with the videos that tell it

Mars exploration

Mars exploration is the effort to study the planet with robotic spacecraft sent from Earth, mainly to learn about its geology and whether it could have supported life. It has been hard: Wikipedia puts the failure rate of Mars-bound spacecraft at roughly sixty percent, higher in the early attempts. There have also been big successes. The rovers Spirit and Opportunity worked for years beyond their design life. Two NASA rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance, are working there now, and the Ingenuity helicopter that scouted for Perseverance ended its mission in 2024. China’s Zhurong rover flew on Tianwen-1.

Events

  • Curiosity

    Curiosity is a one-ton, car-sized rover built to find out whether Mars ever had conditions that could support life. The landing was the hard part.

    3 videos
    • NASA
    • NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
    • Modern Mechanisms

  • Perseverance

    Perseverance is the first rover whose landing was recorded on camera, and NASA released the footage in 2021.

    5 videos
    • NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
    • Mark Rober
    • NASA

Videos on this topic

The videos, in date order

Drag, zoom or press play to watch them on this page.

  1. Curiosity’s Mars Landing: Sky Crane, Touchdown and First Images

    NASA

  2. Curiosity’s Mars Landing: Entry, Descent and Sky Crane at JPL

    NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

  3. Perseverance: Seven Minutes From Mars Atmosphere to Touchdown

    NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

  4. Perseverance: Inside JPL Before the Seven Minutes of Terror

    Mark Rober

  5. Perseverance Landing on Mars: Descent Call-Outs and Real Footage

    NASA

  6. Perseverance’s Mars Landing: Descent Callouts From 12 km Up

    BBC News

  7. Perseverance Landing Footage: Parachute to Sky Crane Touchdown

    Guardian News

  8. Curiosity at 14: Keeping a Mars Rover Running by Remote Control

    Modern Mechanisms

  9. How the Sky Crane Landed Curiosity on Mars in Seven Minutes

    Future Systems Explained

  10. Six Mars Rovers Compared: Landings, Discoveries and Distances

    Cardsplained
Play video: Six Mars Rovers Compared: Landings, Discoveries and Distances

Six Mars Rovers Compared: Landings, Discoveries and Distances

Cardsplained

Duration 12:42

Watch video

Dates are when each video was first published on YouTube.

All the videos

  2. Curiosity at 14: Keeping a Mars Rover Running by Remote Control

    Mission explainerModern Mechanisms · 10:53

    Mission: Curiosity

  3. How the Sky Crane Landed Curiosity on Mars in Seven Minutes

    Vehicle explainerFuture Systems Explained · 3:00

  4. Perseverance Landing Footage: Parachute to Sky Crane Touchdown

    DocumentaryGuardian News · 3:09

    Mission: Perseverance

  5. Curiosity’s Mars Landing: Sky Crane, Touchdown and First Images

    Launch coverageNASA · 9:23

    Mission: Curiosity

  6. Perseverance: Inside JPL Before the Seven Minutes of Terror

    Mission explainerMark Rober · 15:58

    Mission: Perseverance

  7. Perseverance: Seven Minutes From Mars Atmosphere to Touchdown

    Mission explainerNASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory · 3:11

    Mission: Perseverance

  8. Perseverance’s Mars Landing: Descent Callouts From 12 km Up

    Mission explainerBBC News · 3:26

    Mission: Perseverance

  9. Perseverance Landing on Mars: Descent Call-Outs and Real Footage

    DocumentaryNASA · 3:26

    Mission: Perseverance

  10. Curiosity’s Mars Landing: Entry, Descent and Sky Crane at JPL

    Launch coverageNASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory · 2:31

    Mission: Curiosity

Related topics

Follow a program, a vehicle, a destination, an agency or a kind of mission.

Program