SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Mars probe landing reminds Dori of Space Race galvanization
Nov 26, 2018, 6:49 PM
Engineers celebrate as the InSight lander touch downs on Mars in the mission support area of the space flight operation facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/(Al Seib /Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)
(AP Photo/(Al Seib /Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)
The landing of the InSight Mars probe just before noon today brought back some very special memories for KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson.
The robot, which left Earth in May, represents the first successful Mars landing since 2012’s Curiosity rover, and only the eighth overall for NASA. InSight traveled 300 million miles to reach the Red Planet, where it will dig deeper into the Martian surface than ever before.
The final moments for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) were tense, as mission control waited with bated breath to see if the probe would make the landing. When word came that InSight had touched down, NASA staff burst into cheers and cries of joy.
“How exciting if you’re part of this team,” Dori said of the JPL engineers.
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Dori recalled watching the landings of the Space Race during his childhood, and appreciated how space successes bring Americans together.
“The space program was one of the first examples of what you can achieve through nationwide goal-setting,” Dori said, adding, “I love stuff like this, I love how galvanizing it was at one point in my childhood.”
He remembered once staying at a Motel 6 in North Dakota as a Mars rover landed. Because the motel room’s TV only operated when fed quarters, young Dori had to frantically keep inserting coins into the television set so that he would not miss a moment of the footage.
“In the early 60s, Kennedy said, ‘We will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.’ And sure enough, summer of 69 we did, and it was all very magical,” Dori said.
He pointed out that space travel is one of the few arenas in which Americans can set aside political animosity and unite for a common cause.
“I think stuff like this is healthy once in a while — to have stuff nobody seems to hate too much,” he said.
However, Dori draws the line at actually going to Mars himself.
“Is that living?” he said, when asked by Ursula if he would make the journey, assuming such travel ever became possible.
One of Mars’s major drawbacks is a fault that the Red Planet happens to share with the Emerald City.
“What do Mars and Seattle have in common?” Dori quipped. “Neither has an NBA team.”
