--- title: NASA's Morpheus Prototype Completes Successful Test Landing description: NASA'S Morpheus prototype demonstrates it can land unmanned spacecraft on harsh planetary terrain in the dark. canonical: https://time.com/2798498/nasa-morpheus-test-landing/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-30T15:18:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:08:00.545Z article:section: Science og:title: This NASA Test Looks Like A UFO Landing og:description: NASA'S Morpheus prototype demonstrates it can land unmanned spacecraft on harsh planetary terrain in the dark. og:url: https://time.com/2798498/nasa-morpheus-test-landing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77c288163035610f/69869571f983e7073404e2ce/nasa-morpheus.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A free-flight test of the Morpheus prototype lander and Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology, or ALHAT, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 28, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This NASA Test Looks Like A UFO Landing twitter:description: NASA'S Morpheus prototype demonstrates it can land unmanned spacecraft on harsh planetary terrain in the dark. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77c288163035610f/69869571f983e7073404e2ce/nasa-morpheus.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This NASA Test Looks Like A UFO Landing by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff May 30, 2014 3:18 PM UTC  A free-flight test of the Morpheus prototype lander and Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology, or ALHAT, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 28, 2014. A free-flight test of the Morpheus prototype lander and Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology, or ALHAT, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 28, 2014.Mike Chambers—NASA/EPA by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff May 30, 2014 3:18 PM UTC NASA on Friday released imagery from a test run of its Morpheus prototype, which it says demonstrates it can land unmanned spacecraft on harsh planetary terrain in the dark. The test, NASA said, was conducted Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA says its hazard detection system, “assisted by three light detection and ranging (lidar) sensors, located obstacles—such as rocks and craters—and safely landed on the lunar-like hazard field a quarter mile away from the NASA Center.” “These new capabilities could be used in future efforts to deliver cargo to planetary surfaces,” NASA said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2798498/nasa-morpheus-test-landing/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2798498/nasa-morpheus-test-landing/"},"headline":"This NASA Test Looks Like A UFO Landing","datePublished":"2014-05-30T15:18:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:08:00.545Z","description":"NASA'S Morpheus prototype demonstrates it can land unmanned spacecraft on harsh planetary terrain in the dark.","url":"https://time.com/2798498/nasa-morpheus-test-landing/","keywords":["Space","NASA","spacecraft"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77c288163035610f/69869571f983e7073404e2ce/nasa-morpheus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77c288163035610f/69869571f983e7073404e2ce/nasa-morpheus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A free-flight test of the Morpheus prototype lander and Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology, or ALHAT, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 28, 2014.","caption":"A free-flight test of the Morpheus prototype lander and Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology, or ALHAT, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 28, 2014.","creditText":"Mike Chambers—NASA/EPA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2798498/nasa-morpheus-test-landing/","name":"This NASA Test Looks Like A UFO Landing"}}]}] ```