Post navigation The Perseid meteor shower is an annual summer event that can be seen in the night sky across the state of Texas. During the peak of the shower, up to 150 meteors can be seen per hour. It is advisable to view the shower on a clear night away from city lights for the best views. NASA recently completed a series of tests of a mock Mars Sample Return mission. This rocket, the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator or LDSD, is designed to slow a descending payload to safely deliver samples from the Martian surface back to Earth. The successful tests are a major milestone in the mission to bring Martian samples back to Earth for in-depth analysis.