In Depth: Opportunity. Opportunity launched at 20:18:15 July 7, 2003 PDT, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and traveled for six months, landing on Mars on Jan. 24, 2004 PST, just 20 days after its twin rover, Spirit, landed on the other side of the Red Planet. NASA's Opportunity rover was declared dead on February 13, 2019. The rover stopped communicating with Earth on June 10, 2018, during a global dust storm on Mars. preventing it from recharging it's batteries