Jacques McCrillis’s eyes did not leave the projector screen as the seconds counted down.
The 10-year-old from Hopkinton watched diligently as staff in NASA’s crowded control room in Pasadena, Calif., waited to hear if their spacecraft, InSight, made it to the surface of Mars.
McCrillis, who was there with his dad, Bill, said it was the first time he had ever watched a historic space expedition live on television.
“This is a once in a lifetime chance for this mission, and it’s the most advanced mission that they’ve done so far. I think that’s pretty cool to see,” McCrillis said, sitting in a crowded room in Hopkinton’s library Monday afternoon. Bill McCrillis said he picked his son up a few minutes early from the last period of his fourth-grade class to watch the InSight’s landing.
InSight landed just before 3 p.m. after performing a complex maneuver that slowed the spacecraft from more than 12,000 miles per hour to just 5 mph before it touched down, according to NASA. The landing marked the eighth successful landing on Mars for NASA, with its InSight mission slated to last two years.
“I think it’s amazing that we’ve innovated to be able to go up into space and land on another planet,” McCrillis said, standing in the library’s hallway wearing a shirt decorated with blue planes. “It’s cool to be not on Earth and be somewhere else.”
McCrillis was one of 30 people squeezed into Hopkinton library’s community room to watch the live-stream of the landing.
Alan Scribner of Contoocook said he’s been interested in space since he was a toddler – and he’s been following missions closely over the years. He said he enjoys watching live footage of what it’s like to be in the NASA control room when a mission like InSight’s is underway.
“You’re in the headquarters of NASA while it happens, and you can feel their excitement,” he said. “It’s a sort of exhilarating feeling.”
Andy Stone, an engineer from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California who works remotely in Hopkinton, lectured in the library, handing out pamphlets about what scientists hope the InSight will be able to teach us about Mars’s interior, like whether there’s water beneath the planet’s surface.
Stone has worked in California and has attended launches of Mars rovers he’s worked on. He said it’s an exciting and nerve-wracking experience.
“I’ve been there when it’s worked, and everyone’s cheered, and I’ve been there when we’ve waited, and waited, and nothing,” Stone said. “It’s just so exciting to get on the surface.”
Stone’s daughter, 13-year-old Sierra, was sitting on a couch toward the back of the room, watching the screen. She said she likes science-fiction books, like The Martian, and sometimes likes to think about what would happen if humans could actually live on the red planet.
“I think it might be a possibility,” she said. “It’s just cool to find out about other planets and stuff. It’s fun to think about what’s out there.”