A NASA science rover has landed safely on Mars after an eight-month journey. The rover, Curiosity, had traveled more than 350 million miles as part of an eventual two-year mission. White House science adviser John Holdren praised the landing.

John Holdren: “Landing the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, on the surface of the Red Planet was by any measure the most challenging mission ever attempted in the history of robotic planetary exploration. And if anybody has been harboring doubts about the status of U.S. leadership in space, well, there’s a one-ton automobile-size piece of American ingenuity, and it’s sitting on the surface of Mars right now, and it should certainly put any such doubts to rest.”