NASA landed a rover on Mars today, and if you’re looking for a different perspective than the traditional live stream, the space agency also provided the scene from inside Mission Control — in an immersive 360 degrees. You can look around to watch people as they go about their work, but there are also big virtual screens displaying multiple other views, including NASA’s other live stream. It might be the best way to experience the landing because you’ll get it all simultaneously.
The stream includes interviews with key mission staff who explain the purpose of today’s landing as well as some of the technical jargon that was thrown around once Perseverance began its descent, (which culminated in a successful landing)!
NASA has offered a 360-degree stream inside Mission Control for other missions before, including its 2018 InSight Mars landing. But it’s still a really neat experience to see inside the control room, especially during such a historic mission.
If you want to see something akin to what a rover can see on the planet itself, NASA also has previously produced 360-degree views from the surface of Mars. And if you’d rather watch Mission Control from a more produced, less “choose your own” perspective, NASA has a “clean” live stream as well.
Update February 18th, 5PM ET: The post has been updated to reflect that the stream is now over and that the landing was successful.