About 150 people gathered at the Carter Observatory in Wellington on Monday night to watch NASA's latest robotic rover land on Mars.
The observatory had a live link from NASA.
The one-tonne vehicle, known as Curiosity, landed in the Gale Cratera, near the planet's equator, at just after 5.30pm Earth time.
The crater has layers similar to the bottom of a lake-bed, and scientists hope there may once have been water there.
Curiosity will spend the next two years in the crater, looking for evidence that Mars may once have supported life.
The observatory's public programmes officer , John Field, says it will be extremely exciting to see what it finds.
