00:00On this day in space.
00:04On January 3rd, 2004, NASA's Spirit rover landed on Mars.
00:08Also known as Mars Exploration Rover 2, this was the first of NASA's
00:12twin rovers to land on the Red Planet. The other was named Opportunity.
00:16These rovers were designed to last just 90 days on Mars, but Spirit lasted
00:20more than six years. It touched down at the Gusev Crater, which
00:24scientists believe to be an old lake bed that was once filled with water.
00:28NASA named the landing site Columbia Memorial Station to honor the astronauts who were killed
00:32in the Columbia disaster less than a year earlier. And that's what happened on this day
00:36in space.
00:40NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
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