back to article Curiosity landing live from NASA's JPL: How the drama unfolded

El Reg is live from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, waiting to see if the Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity as it's better known, will land safely or crater the surface of Mars. 8:45pm In an effort to keep people occupied NASA has been bussing in celebrities to keep the assembled press talking. Geek icon Will …

COMMENTS

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  1. M Gale

    66,000 ustream viewers and climbing...

    This has got to be one of the most publicised things NASA has done for years.

    Biting nails right now.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Jeff?

      Er, did you remember to fill the airbags?

      CrrrrrrruuuunNnnnnnnnchhhhhhhhh......

      Airbag, I thought you did it!

  2. M Gale

    Make that 89,000 ustream viewers

    Holy pants.

  3. M Gale

    Over 100,000...

    The bandwidth requirements must be pretty damned mind-boggling.

  4. M Gale

    125,000 viewers

    And it seems stage separation is complete.

  5. Arctic fox
    Thumb Up

    ".....no further course corrections are possible." Time to don the brown trousers..............

    ............though how I am going to manage that whilst keeping both my fingers and my toes tightly crossed I do not know. -:)

    1. Arctic fox
      Thumb Up

      Re: Time to don the brown trousers......I have just now taken them off. This eagle has indeed

      ..........landed and their data link to the rover appears to be solid. Everything appears to be fine.

  6. M Gale

    Over 161,000 views...

    ...and here we go!

  7. M Gale

    184,000 views...

    ...and NASA have telemetry. Coo, that's quick.

  8. M Gale

    204,000 views...

    TOUCHDOWN!

  9. scarshapedstar
    Thumb Up

    Woo

    'Bout time something good happened in these United States. Well, or on Mars. You know what I mean.

  10. Shannon Jacobs
    Happy

    Curiosity triumphs on Mars

    Congratulations, and I didn't think the robot could pull it off.

    Now get to work! :-)

    I was on the Utube feed, too, but I forgot to see how many other people were on at the end. Suffice it to say I was distracted.

  11. ian 22
    Pint

    Chuffed

    First images received and celebration in progress.

    Well done!

  12. Shannon Jacobs
    Happy

    I meant Ustream there...

    And still over 100,000 watching the feed.

  13. Volker Hett
    Thumb Up

    This time we come in peace

    and not in pieces!

    1. MrT

      Re: This time we come in peace...

      ...armed with a laser 'cannon' just in case O;-)

    2. Silverburn
      Happy

      Re: This time we come in peace

      ..unless you're a martian cat, with a fear of robotic, nuclear powered lazer death rays.

      I wonder if martian cats have got the equivilent of a John Connor..?

  14. Mikel

    Nicely done

    Hopefully a lot of interesting science to be done out there. Glad to see Curiosity made it.

  15. Paul Kinsler
    Pint

    pictures, of dust and shadow, under the naked light, ...

    But on MARS!

  16. Ammaross Danan
    Go

    Just saw!

    12:09am PST timestamp for The Register's question on the post-landing Q&A. Woot for representing!

    1. Steve 114

      Re: Just saw!

      -and, for two thoroughly sensible questions.

      1. M Gale
        Thumb Up

        Re: Just saw!

        Unlike myself during the much earlier live Q&A session on Ustream. I just had to ask:

        "Given the power source, does this mean you'll be nuking the site from orbit? Just to be sure?"

        @NASAJPL's response: "No, we won't be dusting off."

        Thumbs up for rocket scientists with a sense of humour.

  17. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Pint

    One word:

    Kudos!

  18. DoctorB
    Go

    Science and engineering at its best

    Nothing else to be said.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    mars is pukka

    Not a big bang theory twat in sight till I saw Derek from the builders yard on Sky news

  20. Jesrad
    Thumb Up

    Kudos indeed

    Congratulations to them ! Hurtling a 1-ton rover over millions of miles and have it land in the right spot, at the right speed so it sticks and does not fall apart, is one helluva dart throw.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Register was THERE!

    Anyone notice that the intrepid REGISTER reporter got to ask a question at the news conference? No BBC, Sky or ITV person...Well done. And especially well done to the mission people.

    1. Steve Evans

      Re: The Register was THERE!

      They're all busy at the 'lympics!

  22. Andus McCoatover
    Pint

    100%, NASA

    enuf.

  23. Steve Evans

    Time zone....

    Note to the author...

    When posting stuff on the intarweb with an international audience, it would be nice if times where given a timezone, not just left floating. Preferably a timezone that the whole planet can relate to such at GMT or UTC...

    Not giving a time zone, or using one which is obscure or meaningful only to one nation is a tad insular.

    Even worse when I'm reading this on a .co.uk website, and the times were obviously not from a time zone you would assume for a .uk domain.

    /end rant.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    7 minutes of terror? 7 minutes of fucking pressing F5, more like.

    Well done ustream for constant stuttering and buffering and for finally dropping out entirely at 10:25pm and returning nothing but 503 errors until 10:32pm, thereby missing the entire period of interest. What a complete waste of time that was; internet live TV events remain as shite as they have been since they first began in the '90s.

    Anyone who thinks that the internet is anywhere near ready to replace broadcast media is a gullible asshole who has swallowed a bunch of marketing bullshit.

  25. Trollslayer
    Thumb Up

    Inspirational

    What more can I say?

  26. patters

    Worked for me

    I had no problem watching the Ustream feed. Maybe it was your ISP's fault.

    What a cracking achievement. Did you spot the Douglas Adams reference in Curiosity's tweets? (So long and thanks for all the navigation).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Nope, couldn't have been my ISP.

      Sure, they could be responsible for a few dropped packets causing the glitches and buffering while the stream *was* working, but there's nothing they could have done that would have been the cause of NASA's CDN server (mars.jpl.nasa.gov, aka d2cj35nmzi9erd.cloudfront.net = 54.240.166.56 from where I'm sitting) constantly returning HTTP 503 errors for seven solid minutes (not coincidentally at the exact time when it would have been under most load). That could only have been the server itself. (No, my ISP doesn't have a transparent proxy in line.)

      1. Nameless Faceless Computer User

        Re: Nope, couldn't have been my ISP.

        NASA TV has always given me problems. I'm streaming via Roku. Thankfully, not even a glitch during the landing. If anything, they've greatly improved.

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