This image released by NASA on Saturday Feb. 9, 2013 shows a fresh drill hole, center, made by the Curiosity rover on Friday, Feb. 8, 2013 next to an earlier test hole. Curiosity has completed its first drill into a Martian rock, a huge milestone since landing in an ancient crater in August 2012. (AP Photo/NASA)

In a Mars first, the Curiosity rover drilled into a rock and prepared to dump an aspirin-sized pinch of powder into its onboard laboratories for closer inspection.

The feat marked yet another milestone for the car-size rover, which landed last summer to much fanfare on an ambitious hunt to determine whether environmental conditions were favorable for microbes.

Using the drill at the end of its 7-foot-long robotic arm, Curiosity on Friday chipped away at a flat, veined rock bearing numerous signs of past water flow. After nearly seven minutes of pounding, the result was a drill hole 2 1/2 -inches deep.

The exercise was so complex that engineers spent several days commanding Curiosity to tap the rock outcrop, drill test holes and perform a ”mini-drill” in anticipation of the real show. Images beamed back to Earth overnight showed a fresh borehole next to a shallower test hole Curiosity had made earlier.

More: Curiosity Rover Completes 1st Drill Into Mars Rock - News