The NASA rover Perseverance streaked through the orange martian sky and landed on Mars Thursday as part of a mission to answer whether life ever existed on the planet.

The landing marks the third visit to Mars in just over a week. Two spacecrafts from the United Arab Emirates and China swung into orbit around Mars on successive days last week.

All three missions lifted off in July to take advantage of the close alignment of Earth and Mars, journeying some 300 million miles in nearly seven months.

Perseverance, the biggest, most advanced, rover ever sent by NASA, became the ninth spacecraft since the 1970’s to successfully land on Mars, every one of them from the U.S.

The Minnesota House rejected a bill to bolster security during the upcoming murder trial of a former Minneapolis officer charged with killing George Floyd.

Local, state and federal authorities have been preparing for demonstrations and possible unrest for months.

The measure failed Thursday on a 71-63 vote in the Democratic-controlled house.

Tommies Closet, a program that aims to recycle unwanted clothes, offers mini workshops for students and faculty in partnership with Lauren Callis.

Callis is the founder of the Minneapolis-based clothing store An Upcycled Closet, which includes teaching mending skills to the community.

Sam Larson can be reached at lars4378@stthomas.edu.