Mars Rover Landing touches down for free on XBLA today

Mars Rover Landing, NASA's first video video game, touched down today for free on Xbox with Kinect, a spokesman for NASA announced in a press conference today.

Mars Rover Landing, NASA's first console game, touched down today for free on Xbox Live Marketplace, a spokesman for NASA announced in a press conference today.

"I'm very excited to announce a groundbreaking partnership between NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Microsoft to inspire the next generation of explorers, and scientists, and technologists," a NASA spokesman said. "Mars Rover Landing is the Agency's first experience for a home entertainment console, and through it we're bringing some of the excitement and a few of the challenges of landing Curiosity on Mars to living rooms around the world."

In Mars Rover Landing, players control a spacecraft carrying Curiosity, a NASA rover currently headed toward the red planet. Players use their bodies via Kinect to guide the spacecraft through atmospheric entry, descent, and landing stages.

The real Curiosity launched on November 26, 2011 and is scheduled to touch down on the red planet on August 5th. You can watch the press conference below, which includes Danielle Dallas Roosa, the granddaughter of Apollo 14 astronaut Stewart Roosa, playing Mars Rover Landing.