This video captures the final few minutes of the Curiosity rover’s white-knuckle thrill ride as it fell toward the surface of Mars.

Taken by the rover’s Mars Descent Imager (MARDI), the low-resolution video begins immediately after Curiosity’s heat shield fell away and follows the rover down for the entire entry, descent, and landing sequence. During the film, you can see the camera nodding back and forth as the probe rocks underneath its supersonic parachute. Rocket engines firing below the rover shake the video in several places. A few seconds before landing, the rover’s rockets kick up a large plume of dust as it gets lowered on its 25-foot sky crane and is then gently placed on the ground.

MARDI took a better-quality video in high-resolution color but it won’t be available until engineers can get more data back from the rover. Eventually, this data will help scientists determine exactly where inside of its target ellipse within Gale crater the probe landed. As well, they will see the surrounding landscape close-up and in spectacular detail that orbiting satellite imagers can’t resolve.

Video: NASA/JPL-Caltech