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It’s ‘Mars Madness’ day for space fans as the life-seeking rover Perseverance mission aims for an epic landing on the Red Planet today (February 18).
In the hours leading up to landing, you can enhance the experience by watching a recent NASA documentary. In September, NASA’s YouTube channel posted the 23-minute “Countdown to Mars: A Story of Perseverance” video. He follows former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine as he meets with rover teams ahead of the mission’s launch on July 30, 2020.
“When you look at the team that assembled this robot and the team that put this launcher together, that’s what they did. They persevered,” NASA said in a YouTube video description, citing one line from the documentary.
You can watch the Mars Landing live here and on the Space.com homepage, courtesy of NASA. The webcast begins at 2:15 p.m. EST (7:15 p.m. GMT), with confirmation of landing expected at 3:55 p.m. EST (8:55 p.m. GMT).
Related: How to watch NASA’s Perseverance rover land on Mars
Live Updates: Follow the landing of the Perseverance Mars rover!
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The video is not only filled with historical references to an epic launch on Mars, but the masks on various workers filmed in the documentary testify to another moment in history in the background: the novel coronavirus pandemic that has forced global shutdowns just four months before launch.
Perseverance workers suddenly had to implement new physical distancing protocols for safety. In addition, the launch party – which typically attracts tens of thousands of ordinary people to the launch site, as well as hundreds of journalists – was strictly limited to essentially essential people only, to reduce the risk of the virus spreading. .
Perseverance rover landing on Mars: all you need to know
NASA has been working hard to ensure that the launch of Perseverance is completed on time with these new changes. The agency was lucky because the Euro-Russian ExoMars mission (also scheduled for 2020) was forced to delay until 2022 partly due to the pandemic and partly due to ongoing parachute issues.
At the end of the video, you see Bridenstine witnessing the flawless launch on the Red Planet, in a small group of people all wearing masks. Just before takeoff was shown on screen, he shared with the documentary crew what he was feeling.
“Every time we launch into space it’s scary. There’s nothing at this point you’re going to do to stop it. This rocket is going, it is going,” Bridenstine said, who resigned in January with the arrival of the new presidential administration of Joe Biden.
The interim administrator who will assist with Perseverance’s Mars landing attempt is Steve Jurczyk, who was appointed to the post on January 20 as the new administration seeks a replacement. Jurczyk has been the agency’s associate administrator since May 2018, according to his NASA bio, and has worked at NASA since 1988.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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