Taking a dig at his predecessor Donald Trump, Biden said that he had heard of a head of state who wondered what had happened to the US. “They used to be so proud to do great things. And here they can’t even deal with a coronavirus.

“It matters because democracies have to demonstrate they can run efficiently. We have never ever, ever failed to meet a call. We’ve set our mind to it. And we’ve done it together. And that’s what you all show. So, it goes way beyond the whole notion of what you just recently did,” he added.

Mohan said that there was “the thrill of all the scientific discoveries that are yet to come and what Perseverance can actually find—and hopefully find those signs of past life on Mars”. Under Mohan’s guidance, Perseverance slowed down from a speed of nearly 20,000 km per hour with retrorockets and a parachute to about 3 kmph to touch down at the Jezero Crater on Mars about 224 million miles away from Earth on February 18.