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NASA has successfully landed its Insight spacecraft on Mars in an incredible feat.

The Insight Lander's journey of six months and 300 million miles came to a grand finale on Monday evening as it touched down on the surface of the red planet.

It is NASA's first attempt to land on Mars in six years.

Only around four in 10 missions ever sent to Mars have been successful and all of them have involved spacecrafts from the US.

Jubilant scenes erupted in NASA's control room as it was confirmed the spacecraft had successfully touched down.

Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles clapped, high-fived and hugged one another in relief.

The InSight lander touched down on Mars just before 8pm UK time, surviving the so-called "seven minutes of terror" - a tricky landing phase for the robotic probe, travelling at 13,200mph through the planet's thin atmosphere which provides little friction to slow down.

The science probe streaked into the planet's thin atmosphere and began its descent to the surface during the make-or-break landing attempt.

It managed to lower its speed to five miles per hour in just seven minutes.

The speed of Insight's touchdown is thought to have been the equivalent of human jogging speed, scientists say.

Millions of people around the world tuned in to watch the mission, which was broadcast from 7pm in the UK.

American space agency Nasa's 814 million dollar (£633 million) two-year mission aims to shine new light on how the Red Planet was formed and its deep structure, by mapping its core, crust and mantle.

InSight arrived on Mars's Elysium Planitia area north of its equator, described as an ideal spot for its flat, rockless surface.

Three UK-made seismometer instruments are on board InSight, part of a £4 million UK Space Agency effort to measure seismic waves.

Scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Oxford who created the instruments will be based at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California to assist with the study, including selecting the best spot for the robot arm to place the seismometer.

"It is wonderful news that the InSight spacecraft has landed safely on Mars," said Sue Horne, head of space exploration at the UK Space Agency.

"The UK scientists and engineers involved in this mission have committed several years of their lives to building the seismometer on board, and the descent is always a worrying time.

"We can now look forward to the deployment of the instrument and the data that will start to arrive in the new year, to improve our understanding of how the planet formed."

A second instrument will burrow five metres into the ground of Mars, measuring the planet's temperature, while a third experiment will determine how Mars wobbles on its axis.

The challenging mission should help scientists learn more about the mysterious planet, and our own.

Lori Glaze, acting director of the Planetary Science Division at Nasa, said: "Once InSight is settled on the Red Planet and its instruments are deployed, it will start collecting valuable information about the structure of Mars' deep interior - information that will help us understand the formation and evolution of all rocky planets, including the one we call home."

The spacecraft has sailed 301 million miles on a six-month voyage through deep space to reach its destination.

InSight will spend 24 months - about one Martian year - using seismic monitoring and underground temperature readings to unlock mysteries about how Mars formed and, by extension, the origins of the Earth and other rocky planets of the inner solar system.