Timeline of Major Mission Events During Curiosity’s Landing

The following data were compiled by Curiosity’s Entry, Descent and Landing team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. It provides a timeline of critical mission events that occurred on the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (early on Aug. 6 EDT).

Time of Event Occurrence at Mars (PDT)
[10:10:45.7 PM]  Atmospheric Entry
[10:15:04.9 PM]  Parachute Deploy
[10:15:24.6 PM]  Heat Shield Separation
[10:17:38.6 PM]  Rover Separation (from Descent Stage)
[10:17:57.3 PM]  Touchdown

Time Event Occurrence Received on Earth (PDT)
[10:24:33.8 PM]  Atmospheric Entry
[10:28:53.0 PM]  Parachute Deploy
[10:29:12.7 PM]  Heat Shield Separation
[10:31:26.7 PM]  Rover Separation (from Descent Stage)
[10:31:45.4 PM]  Touchdown

For more information on NASA’s Curiosity mission, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl, http://www.nasa.gov/mars and http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl . Follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .  For more about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mro .