#OnlyOnTwitter: Curiosity

Tuesday, 7 August 2012

We often say “You never know where Twitter will take you,” but here’s one that (almost) defies imagination. Last night, we saw that NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (@NASAJPL) was live-tweeting the journey to Mars. As Curiosity, the car-sized rover, made its descent onto the Red Planet, the #JPL team shared Twitter updates directly from the command center. And that stream reveals a truly remarkable and historic sequence of events:

And then, after the “seven minutes of terror”, in the words (and through the eyes) of the Curiosity rover itself:

This monumental scientific achievement quickly inspired an Twitter outpouring of awe, pride, and even a dash of levity:

The @MarsCuriosity account will continue to share updates from the rover’s explorations, including photos from the surface of Mars. As Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) once said, “Mars is there, waiting to be reached”. Thanks for taking us there, @NASAJPL team.

Posted by Adam Sharp, Head of Government, News and Social Innovation (@AdamS)