Curiosity Landing...

It's closing in on 1a, and I've had my 5-hour shot, and my Amp energy drink, and I've still had a difficult time staying awake this late.  (Damn, I feel old.)  But I'm awake now, and I'm watching the live feed from Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity's Mission Control center at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA.  I've decided to live-blog the proceedings from now until I finally go to bed.

12:57a - MC crew conducting one of the last series of flight checks, each station announcing status of its particular system, one at a time.

1a - they're passing jars of peanuts around MC.  Apparently a good luck tradition since the Ranger mission.

1:08a - approximately 20 mins. from landing, Curiosity ~3,400 miles from Mars, the Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) team takes over and begins to run through their checklists, to make sure everything is ready to go.

1:12a - EDL has announced that pyros are enabled.  Pyros are used to separate the stages of the landing vehicle.

1:15a - EDL has announced successful crew-stage separation.  Curiosity now ~2,200 miles from Mars.  In about a minute, Curiosity's EDL systems will "wake-up" in preparation for atmospheric entry.

1:19a - EDL has announced Curiosity is ~6mins from entry, and is broadcasting "heartbeat" tones; all is good, and as expected - nothing to do now but wait.  Curiosity is currently traveling at ~5km/sec.  (Remember, all this information is ~14mins old by the time it gets to us.  So, by now, the rover is on the surface, one way or another.)

1:22a - MC crew just sitting around, waiting; all looking nervous, anxious, and excited.  EDL announces ~2mins to entry, and Curiosity is on-target to land ~2.3meters from the target site.

1:25a - Curiosity now less than 400miles from Mars, and has successfully switched to the special antenna it will use for atmospheric entry.

1:26a - Curiosity has entered the atmosphere of Mars!

1:27a - MC receives word that Martian Odyssey satellite is tracking Curiosity's descent.

1:29a - Curiosity is decelerating, going ~Mach 2.4 and falling, preparing for parachute deployment.

1:30a - Parachute has deployed!  Speed dropped to less than half of Mach 1 and falling.  Preparing for sky-crane seperation.

1:32a - Sky-crane rockets have fired!

1:33a - TOUCHDOWN!  Curiosity is safe on the surface of Mars!!  MC crew goes wild - cheering, crying, hugs and high-fives all around!  I haven't seen this many nerds crying since the end of Dark Knight Rises.

1:35a - the first image comes down from Curiosity!  And, of course, I can't see it, because my internet connection cuts out all of a sudden.

1:44a - finally got my internet back and powered-up the feed again.  Everyone at JPL MC still partying as the first images are coming down.  Everything is covered in dust thrown up by the sky-crane's thrusters as it launched away from the rover after touchdown.  First visible image is of Curiosity's wheel on the surface of Mars.

1:48a - everyone is settling back into their seats.  Let's do some SCIENCE!

1:50a - crew going through post-landing checks, making sure everything is still intact and working after that fast and furious fall.

2:01a - post-landing poll almost finished.  At that point, control will be shifted to the ground team, who will be responsible for the rover from this point on.

2:03a - well, I wanted to wait until the post-landing poll had been completed, and it was confirmed that everything was working satisfactorily, but NASA just cut their feed in preparation for the press conference in about twenty minutes, so I guess that's my cue to go to bed.  What an amazing thing to have witnessed.  I'm so glad I had a chance to be a part of it.  We are absolutely incredible, truly.  The things we can do!

I cannot wait to see what Curiosity can teach us.