LOS ANGELES, Jan. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The Mars Opportunity rover touched down safely on the surface of the red planet late Saturday, NASA mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) said.

    The touchdown occurred at abo ut 9:06 p.m. Pacific Time (0506 GMT Sunday) in a successful operation, said the controllers. "We're on Mars everybody," mission scientist Wayne Lee declared as the JPL control room in Pasadena, southern California, burst into wild applause.

    It is the second US craft to land on Mars this month. Opportunity's twin rover, Spirit, landed Jan. 3 but on the opposite side of the red planet.

    The rover landed on the plains of Meridiani Planum in outcropping of gray hematite, a mineral that usually forms in the presence of water.

    The landing of the twin rovers is an 820-million-dollar NASA mission to determine if Mars ever was a wetter world capable of sustaining life.

    The Spirit rover has developed serious problems since early Wednesday, disrupting a steady flow of pictures and scientific data.

    But Spirit transmitted data to Earth Friday for the first time since its malfunction.

    Spirit's flight software appears to have rebooted its computer more than 60 times in the past three days. Enditem