During the “seven minutes of terror,” the room was almost completely silent. Some of the mission scientists’ friends and family were grinning, cracking jokes, full of elation and excitement. But the scientists sat either stonily or with worry writ large on their faces. Their livelihoods were at stake – this was no laughing matter. Here are some pictures in the moments before landing, of University of Colorado’s Mike Mellon and Johnson Space Center’s Dick Morris and, on the continuing page, project scientist Leslie Tamppari. What got me was when the voice from JPL mission control started calling out the altitudes after the lander got a radar lock on the surface. As soon as people realized it was decelerating, a few voices cut through the room: “Yes. Yes. Yes, Come on.”

Afterwards, Aaron Zent, from NASA Ames, stood by in his sandals, shorts and Hawaiian shirt, texting back friends, family and neighbors. “I thought I was being pretty cool. But after it landed, I realized that I had been sweating like a pig.” Zent had been a part of five failed Mars missions. “I was oh for five. So this is a novel experience for me.”