PASADENA, Calif.—And the crowd goes wild! Cheers and tears of joy erupted at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) late Sunday night when Mission Control received signal that the Curiosity rover successfully landed on Mars.

All communications seemed to go exactly as—or even better than—planned. Odyssey passed over the Mars Space Laboratory just as it approached its entry, descent, and landing (EDL) phase, meaning that the orbiter was in position to relay signals back to Earth.

Bursts of relieved applause punctuated the tense silence as Allen Chen, the deputy lead of the mission's EDL team, narrated the successful cruise stage separation, entry into the atmosphere, parachute deployment, and heatshield separation.

"We are wheels down on Mars," Chen declared, and history was made.

Mars missions have been traditionally disappointing; 60 percent globally have failed. But Curiosity—a rover "made in the U.S.A," as astronaut John Grunsfeld reminded the audience in a post-landing press conference—has proved that such a mission can be a triumph.

Just minutes after landing was confirmed, Odyssey transmitted the first dusty thumbnail images that Curiosity had taken with her rear hazmat cameras. Two hours later, during Odyssey's second flyover, high-resolution images came down showing rocks and the rim of Gale Crater, where the rover landed. Eric De Jong of JPL's image processing lab said the photos looked very close to what he had expected.

During Curiosity's flight to Mars, the cruise mission control team transferred one marble per day from a "Days Since Launch" jar into a "Days Until Entry" jar. This morning, the last remaining marble was moved, signifying that the journey is over. Later, the team dumped the full jar into an empty one in the Surface Operations room, symbolically handing the duties over. That team will need many more marbles, though, as the rover is expected to roam Mars for more than two years.

In the coming days, Curiosity will take her time testing her instruments and examining her surroundings, ultimately searching for clues to Mars's wetter past. By Aug. 9, scientists anticipate the first panorama pictures. Despite what Curiosity may or may not find, tonight's landing is a momentous victory.

"In my life, I'll be forever satisfied if this is the greatest thing I ever do…There is now a picture of a new place on Mars," said lead EDL engineer Adam Steltzner.