NASA's Perseverance just completed a marathon on Mars
- Date:
- July 14, 2026
- Source:
- NASA
- Summary:
- NASA's Perseverance rover has reached an impressive new milestone on Mars, completing the equivalent of a full marathon by driving 26.2 miles (42.195 kilometers) across the Red Planet. It accomplished the feat in just five years and four months, reaching the distance on its 1,890th Martian day, less than half the time it took the previous record holder, NASA's Opportunity rover.
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NASA's Perseverance rover has reached a remarkable milestone on Mars, completing the equivalent of a full marathon (26.2 miles, or 42.195 kilometers) across the Red Planet. A new image captured on June 13, 2026, shows the rover as a tiny green speck against the Martian landscape, just one day before it officially reached the distance milestone.
Perseverance covered the marathon distance after five years and four months of driving, reaching the mark on the 1,890th Martian day, or sol, of its mission. That pace far surpassed NASA's previous record holder, the Opportunity rover, which needed 11 years and two months to travel the same distance.
HiRISE Captures Perseverance From Orbit
The striking overhead image was taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) using its High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. Along with the rover itself, the image clearly reveals the winding tracks Perseverance has left behind as it explores the Martian surface.
At the time the image was captured, the rover was operating west of Jezero Crater in a region the mission's science team has nicknamed "Arbot."
The Teams Behind the Mission
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, which is managed for NASA by Caltech, oversees operations for both Perseverance and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on behalf of the agency's Science Mission Directorate as part of the Mars Exploration Program.
Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and continues to support its operations. The University of Arizona in Tucson operates the HiRISE camera, which was built by BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado.
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