NASA’s Perseverance rover has reached a remarkable milestone on Mars, completing the equivalent of a full marathon across Mars (26.2 miles, or 42.195 kilometers). A new image taken on June 13, 2026, just one day before officially reaching the distance milestone, shows the rover as a small green speck against the background of the Martian landscape.
Perseverance completed the marathon distance after five years and four months of operation, reaching its goal on 1,890 Martian days (sols) of its mission. This pace far outpaced NASA’s previous record-holder, the Opportunity rover, which took 11 years and two months to cover the same distance.
HiRISE gains perseverance from orbit
This impressive overhead image was taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) using the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. The image clearly shows the winding tracks Perseverance left as it explored the surface of Mars, along with the rover itself.
At the time the images were taken, the rover was operating west of Jezero Crater in an area the mission’s science team named Arbot.
The team that supports our mission
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), located in Southern California, is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology and oversees operations of both the Perseverance and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiters on behalf of NASA’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 HiRISE cameras built by BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado.
