Kremlin praises NASA's successful Perseverance landing

The Kremlin welcomes the landing of an American research space probe on Mars, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian president said, RIA Novosti reports. According to him, such space achievements are the property of mankind.Every country that has its own space program is a competitor "in the positive sense of the word." Competition drives the industry forward, he added. "I repeat once again: any success, of course, is worthy to be welcomed, but, of course, our country has its own ambitious space exploration program," he concluded. On February 18, Perseverance Mars rover landed in the vicinity of Jezero crater on Mars. NASA reported that two images taken on the surface of Mars have already been received on Earth.In accordance with the plan, Perseverance entered the atmosphere of Mars without entering the planet's orbit at a speed of about 20,000 kilometers per hour (prior to that, the landing module undocked from the flight module of the spacecraft). After the speed in the upper atmosphere was decreased, the Perseverance parachute was triggered, and then a heat shield was dropped to protect the rover when entering the atmosphere.