The US$450 million (AU$614 million) Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) successfully completed the make-or-break manoeuver as scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California cheered and applauded the news.
"I am very relieved. It was perfect," said Jim Graf, project manager for the orbiter at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
"We couldn't have planned it better," he added, pointing out that the probe had reappeared from the dark side of Mars within a second of when it was expected.
The tricky part
Seven months after it was launched from Earth the MRO fired its rockets in order to slow the 2.2-tonne vehicle and allow it to be caught by Mars's gravitational pull.
It took nearly half and hour for the vehicle to brake and scientists held their breath during the crucial final six minutes as the probe slipped behind Mars, losing radio contact with NASA for 30 minutes.
"We are about 325,000 miles (523,000 kilometers) from Mars. We're traveling at about 6,400 miles (10,300 kilometers) an hour and we are going to double our speed as we get closer to Mars," Mr Graf said.
Mr Graf explained manoeuvering the craft into orbit is the trickiest part of the mission because it is handled automatically by instructions programmed into the craft.
This auto-pilot-like feature is because communication between the craft and control centre takes 24 minutes due to the great distance it has to travel.
"There is no time for the team as a whole to react, so we have on board all the programs we need to carry out, and the spacecraft has to do it all on its own," he said.
Two of the last four orbiters NASA sent to Mars did not survive the final approach.
But the NASA control center confirmed the MRO's reappearance and its move into a smooth orbit without a hitch.
Mars mission
According to Mr Graf the MRO mission to study the Mars surface is "the most technologically advanced payload" NASA has ever sent to another planet".
In late March, NASA engineers will bring the probe progressively into a low, circular orbit at an altitude ranging between 320 and 410 kilometers, to begin a 25-month observation mission. A single orbit will take two hours.
"Our primary science phase won't begin until November, but we'll actually be studying the changeable structure of Mars's atmosphere by sensing the density of the atmosphere at different altitudes each time we fly through it during aerobraking," said the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Richard Zurek, project scientist for the mission.
Observation and analysis instruments carried by the MRO will search for signs of water and ice from the planet's outer atmosphere to below the Martian surface.
When the research mission is over, MRO will serve as a high-speed communications relay satellite until 2011 for at least two future Mars landing missions.