The Launch of Perseverance to Mars
Wow, this is what it's like to be at the launch of a spacecraft! We have this mission launching the Perseverance rover, and the helicopter Ingenuity is going up on a seven-month journey to reach Mars. This is just awesome, man! My first launch of a spacecraft, and I just feel like I'm the only one out here. It's me and the spacecraft, it's right over—I don't know, there—somewhere. I'm gonna put on a long line so we can see it. I think I can see it!
Holy crap, holy crap! Look at it go! That is phenomenal! You got any advice for me in terms of, like, what I should be looking out for? Or, you know, any advice for a first-timer?
So what's really interesting to me is how emotional it is. Basically, what you're going to see is almost like a miracle. You hear the countdown and then all of a sudden you see this light taking off. It's like, you know, it’s like clouds, and then you see the light taking off! Just like that, I don't hear anything. All of a sudden, you feel it in your body! The sound, of course, propagating slower than the light will hit your body and will really shake you. You know, it's this almost out-of-body experience that you're part of, really. Again, taking off from the shore of the cosmic ocean—you know, for me, it's like punching a hole in the sky.
So that was amazing, and there it is, doing its turn to the east! I felt this for the first time a couple of years ago when I saw the solar eclipse, but there are just some moments in life where you realize that you are really on this rock hurtling through space. The solar eclipse was one of those moments for me, and seeing this rocket launch to another planet just hits that home.
It's like most of your daily life you can go and just do everything without thinking about that fundamental reality, but when you see something like this, it just changes your worldview for a minute. So you can really embrace this sense that we're on this rock hurtling through space, and we just sent off a projectile to another planet, which is a pretty freaking amazing thing! I know we've done it a number of times in the past, so you know, maybe people get sort of numb to it, but it's a pretty extraordinary accomplishment every single time.