PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's most advanced Mars rover  Curiosity has landed on the Red Planet. The one-ton rover, hanging by ropes  from a rocket backpack, touched down onto Mars Sunday to end a 36-week flight  and begin a two-year investigation.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft that  carried Curiosity succeeded in every step of the most complex landing ever  attempted on Mars, including the final severing of the bridle cords and flyaway  maneuver of the rocket backpack.

"Today, the  wheels of Curiosity have begun to blaze the trail for human footprints on Mars.   Curiosity, the most sophisticated rover ever built, is now on the surface of  the Red Planet, where it will seek to answer age-old questions about whether  life ever existed on Mars -- or if the planet can sustain life in the  future," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "This is an  amazing achievement, made possible by a team of scientists and engineers from  around the world and led by the extraordinary men and women of NASA and our Jet  Propulsion Laboratory. President Obama has laid out a bold vision for sending  humans to Mars in the mid-2030's, and today's landing marks a significant step  toward achieving this goal." 

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