August 6, 2012

Video: NASA Lands Car-Sized Rover Near Martian Mountain

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I stayed up last night to watch the incredible event of the successful landing of Mars Curiosity only a projected 262 meters from planned site at 10:14:39 PDT official touchdown time in order to tweet (and retweet from the space pros and those in attendance of the many NASA social events watching the event) to keep my social media followers up to date.

For those who didn't watch the stream from mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on NASA TV live feed, you can see it here now. Nothing compares to the calm cautious waiting of the engineers as they know the lander is on the surface, but not having news of the state of the lander since the feed signal takes 14 minutes to travel from Mars to the Earth. Share the excitement as it grows as they get the news of parachute deployment, deceleration, and the success of the sky crane in getting the one ton vehicle safely to the ground! More excitement once the first photo arrives!

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I still get teary-eyed viewing this. Watching it live was magnificent, and I'm glad I stayed up to share it on social media with others who were just as excited and proud as the incredible team who made it happen. Now we're just waiting for images from the rover to stream in and possibly some from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that seems to have successfully captured Curiosity during entry, descent and landing.

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