Mars landing will be broadcast live from Times Square

This article was updated at 9:37 p.m. EDT to include an 11-minute animated video of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Mission.

Times Square’s iconic Toshiba Vision screen will be the largest location for East Coast viewers to watch NASA’s coverage of the upcoming landing of the Mars rover Curiosity, according to a report from NASA. Beginning at 11:30 p.m. EDT on August 5, the Toshiba Vision screen will broadcast NASA TV, showing the events of the landing live.

John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, says, “In the city that never sleeps, the historic Times Square will be the place for New Yorkers to participate in this historic landing. When you think of all the big news events in history, you think of Times Square, and I can think of no better venue to celebrate this news-making event on Mars.”



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This is intended to be a "hard" landing. Let's hoper NASA doesn't end up with an embarrassing event.

In just a few days, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will, hopefully, touch down on the surface of the Red Planet after a journey of nearly 9 months. The MSL mission itself is highlighted by the car-sized rover, Curiosity. For NASA, this latest mission to Mars represents the most ambitious undertaking to the Red Planet yet devised and, in another way, is a make or break mission for the Space agency's planetary science program.

In the face of extensive budget cuts that have forced the cancellation of the most ambitious interplanetary science probes, NASA scientists have found a new mission for the agency's Curiosity rover, which is already well on its way to Mars: prove to the American public that planetary science is worth funding at all.

Who was the idiot who scheduled this during the Olympics?

In their race around the sun, Earth on its inside track laps Mars every 26 months. This close approach provides an opportunity — a launch window — to send spacecraft to the red planet. Rather than pointing the spacecraft at Mars, engineers aim it in a wide orbit around the sun. The sun's gravity gives the spacecraft a boost — called a gravity assist or slingshot effect —saving time and fuel. The spacecraft's orbit then intersects with Mars.