This is not the first rover to land on Mars, but the first one that I was able to watch via the internet. At least, that’s what I was hoping for. What I got was a streaming video of astronomers from NASA reacting to various milestones that Curiosity met as it lands on Mars. In the end, my reward was two low resolution black-and-white images of Mars.

And it was all worth it. Real life is always a bit less entertaining than the movies. I did feel tense as Curiosity got closer and closer to Mars, even if everyone in NASA looked so calm. Everything went so smooth that it took most of the suspense away, but I’m just relieved and excited that it landed safely.

It was great to be able to watch it happen in almost real-time. It’s also great to see this getting the national attention it deserves. The host of the streaming video mentioned how the first image was getting so many hits that the website had temporary problems serving it.

This morning, I also saw a lot of mentions on my twitter feed composed mostly of film, tech, and sports journalists. Good to see that people in various industries are equally excited by it.

Here are links to the first two images from last night: showing Curiosity’s wheel, showing Curiosity’s shadow. Here’s one captured by a hi-res camera of Curiosity and its parachute.