CURIOSITY

Monday, August 06, 2012

1:06 PM

Early this morning I had the incredible privilege of watching an astounding feat:  the landing of Curiosity on Mars.  Watching as each  scientist monitored his or her screen.  To hear the events of the seven minutes of terror as they were called out and pronounced successful was amazing.

Did Barack Obama even mention this astounding achievement?  Or did he ignore the success.  What these brilliant people did was prove just how great America is despite Obama's constant apologizing. 

It was wonderful watching the excitement of the men and women who made this extremely difficult process happen.  Then, within minutes, we got the chance to see pictures showing the Curiosity comfortably on the ground after a successful landing . 

Then again, this morning, we got up to see a real-life satellite picture of the deployed parachute.  There are simply not words to describe the thrill.  To compare the success, if this were an Olympic event, they would  have clocked a one-half-second 100 meter dash.  They would have long jumped 3000 feet.  They would have thrown the javelin from London to Beijing's Olympic stadium.

Any one who watched the video on YouTube of the extremely complicated step-by-step process could feel the tension as the ring was jettisoned, the pod entered the atmosphere, the parachute deployed and the control jets fire and finally the sky-crane landing.  All had to work perfectly and it all did.

Don't tell me, Mr.Obama, that America is not great.  What an incredible team of people. Greater than any team in professional or Olympic sports history.  These guys didn't win by an eyelash, they won by a universe.  And America is still the greatest country in the world despite Obama's hate for our successes.

Thank you Nasa and JPL because you let us see the best show on television since the Moon Landing.