On what date did NASA’s Curiosity rover land on Mars?

NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Mars on 6 August 2012.

The rover touched down inside Gale Crater using an innovative sky-crane system. A descent stage lowered Curiosity on cables before flying away and crashing at a safe distance. The landing occurred at about 05:17 UTC, though local time at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California was still 5 August because of the time difference.

Curiosity’s main target is Mount Sharp, the layered central mountain of Gale Crater. Its science instruments investigate Martian rocks, soil and atmosphere to determine whether the planet once had environments capable of supporting microbial life. Curiosity is not designed to search directly for living organisms. The rover followed NASA’s earlier Mars Pathfinder mission and Spirit and Opportunity rovers, while Perseverance later landed in Jezero Crater on 18 February 2021. Curiosity remains a major source of geological and atmospheric data from Mars.