Video: Crowd watches Mars landing at The Kenney with Solar System Ambassador Alice Enevoldsen

10:41 PM: We’ve watched solstice and equinox sunsets with her, and now a Mars landing – West Seattle’s NASA Solar System Ambassador Alice Enevoldsen presided as a crowd of more than 40 at The Kenney (WSB sponsor) just watched the NASA feed bring word that Curiosity had landed successfully. There was applause here to mirror the applause from Mission Control; we’ll have video shortly (added – here’s the video):

(First big round of applause is about :45 in)
A lucky few went away with buttons to commemorate the occasion – reading “7 minutes of terror”:

That’s in honor of the nailbiting interval between its entry to Mars’s atmosphere, and touchdown.

10:59 PM UPDATE: Almost half an hour after touchdown now, and at least a dozen people are lingering to talk about it.

(The NASA feed says there was so much interest, two of their websites crashed.) Back in June at Alice’s summer-solstice-watch event, Lego models of the lander were on display, and they’re here too:

The Solar System Ambassador program (explained here) has more than 500 volunteers around the country, including Alice, who has been part of it since 2010 (here’s her listing on the NASA website).

EARLY MORNING P.S. Another new image has since come in from Mars – see it here.

11 Replies to "Video: Crowd watches Mars landing at The Kenney with Solar System Ambassador Alice Enevoldsen"

  • Julie August 5, 2012 (11:05 pm)

    Hurray! We’re baaaaack!

  • Alice August 6, 2012 (1:34 am)

    Big shout out to my dad, brother, husband, and Charlie from the Kenney for all their help. Really it was a team effort.

    Somehow I got the limelight but the rest of the “Enevoldsen Interpretation Team” was doing most of the real work, they just didn’t have microphones. If you went to play with all the models and props you talked to one of them, plus my dad made all the Lego models.

    • WSB August 6, 2012 (1:44 am)

      Enevoldsen Interpretation Team. You need T-shirts next time! Maybe just Team E. Congratulations, it was fun. I didn’t get to fully enjoy the famous first moon landing when I was a kid – I was packed off to summer camp, brought home that day, and just vaguely remember entering the house and seeing my grandma watching something about the Moon on the big console TV in the family room. (The movie “The Dish,” which I’ve seen about a dozen times, made up for that a bit, many years later … http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0205873/ ) – TR

  • Diane August 6, 2012 (1:51 am)

    what a fantastic event; thank you Alice and all; learned so much tonight; so glad I got to meet and chat with your entire team
    ~
    I remember well watching the 1st moon landing; we’ve come a long way; amazing stuff

  • Alice August 6, 2012 (3:11 am)

    WSB–Great idea!
    Yeah, that was a good movie.

    Diane–Thanks for coming. :)

  • miws August 6, 2012 (6:49 am)

    Or, perhaps, simply Enevoldsen Team? ;-)

    .

    Mike

  • DML August 6, 2012 (7:47 am)

    So thrilling to see science and engineering win the day. It was impossible but they did it. We cheered from home. I still have the set of photos I sent for from the Viking mission in the 70’s. Thanks for the good coverage on this and lets hear it for the amazing NASA/JPL Nerds who definitely rule today.

  • Jiggers August 6, 2012 (9:03 am)

    It wasn’t a real landing folks.

  • datamuse August 6, 2012 (9:19 am)

    I kind of love that flight director Bobak Ferdowsi’s hair has acquired its own fan club.

  • RG August 7, 2012 (12:38 pm)

    Lol at Jiggers’ comment!
    .
    They faked it all to win the race for budget funding!

  • DAve August 7, 2012 (2:07 pm)

    How did you already have buttons made for something that you were watching??

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