Launched on July 7, 2003, as part of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover program, it landed in Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004, three weeks after its twin Spirit (MER-A) touched down on the other side of the planet. NASA's Opportunity Rover Mission on Mars Comes to End NASA's Opportunity Mars rover mission is complete after 15 years on Mars. Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars on Jan. 24, 2004, seven months after its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Opportunity: Landing January 24, 2004 Dr. Wayne Lee, chief engineer for development of the Mars Exploration Rover's descent and landing systems proudly waves a broom, indicating a clean martian sweep. Engineers faced the daunting task of slowing the Mars Exploration Rover spacecraft from about 12,000 miles per hour when they entered the atmosphere to about 12 miles per hour when they hit the surface of Mars… With a planned 90-solduration of activity (slightly less than 92.5 Earth days), Spirit functioned until it got stuck in 2009 and ceased comm… The team went two for two with the successful landings of both Spirit and Opportunity. Opportunity's record-breaking exploration laid the groundwork for future missions to the Red Planet.

Its twin rover, Spirit, landed 20 days earlier in the 103-mile-wide (166-kilometer-wide) Gusev Crater on the other side of Mars. Entry, descent, and landing technologies ensure precise and safe landings. Opportunity, also known as MER-B (Mars Exploration Rover – B) or MER-1, and nicknamed "Oppy", is a robotic rover that was active on Mars from 2004 until the middle of 2018.