In Washington, I saw what's left of American greatness in the age of Donald Trump
Perseverance pierced the Martian atmosphere on February 18, 2021, 29 days after the end of U.S. President Donald Trump's first term in office and just under four years before his remarkable, calamitous return. At about 12 kilometres above the ancient, pitted surface, the rover — cocooned in a conical heat shield — deployed a supersonic parachute. The heat shield split and fell away. Perseverance, the culmination of decades of near-miraculous science and human striving, drifted safely toward the copper ground — 'ready,' in the words of NASA Mission Control, 'to begin seeking the signs of ancient life.'
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