London, August 6 : NASA's Curiosity rover has successfully landed on Mars.

The one-tonne vehicle touched down in a deep crater near the planet''s equator after a plunging through the atmosphere.

A signal confirming the rover was on the ground safely was relayed to Earth via NASA's Odyssey satellite, which is in orbit around the Red Planet, the BBC reported.

The success was greeted with a roar of approval here at mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The mission team will now spend the next few hours assessing the health of the vehicle (also referred to as the Mars Science Laboratory, MSL).

It is going to look for evidence that Mars could once have supported life.

"People have got to realise this mission will be different," commented Steve Squyres, the lead scientist of the Opportunity and Spirit rovers landed in 2004.

"When we landed we only thought we''d get 30 sols (Martian days) on the surface, so we had to hit the ground running. Curiosity has plenty of time," he told the BBC. (ANI)