1 YEAR UNTIL LAUNCH
GFX LOWER THIRD: SPIRIT TESTING
STEVE SQUYRES: So we built Spirit and Opportunity
with the intention of them being identical twins. And they kind of started out that way but things diverged quickly.
GFX LOWER THIRD: 1 YEAR UNTIL LAUNCH
PRODUCTION ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE: Spirit test bed: “And we’re off the air.”
ROB MANNING: When we did those tests with this big rocket-shaped payload and dropped it out of the sky from a helicopter. First one, the parachute tore to shreds. The second one was torn to shreds. And so we realized we didn’t have a working parachute. PRODUCTION ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE: Adam: “Unfortunately, that chute that just exploded was the chute that we were planning on taking to Mars.”
DOUG ELLISON: All the way through assembly and testing, it was always Spirit hitting some sort of test first and it would fail. PRODUCTION ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE: KOBIE BOYKINS: “We lost a bushing. Look on the deck.”
DOUG ELLISON: And then along comes Opportunity.
PRODUCTION ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE: Another engineer: “You’re in very very serious trouble. What part of this gives you guess? Where are you concerned?”
PRODUCTION ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE Pete Theisinger: “There’s a list of threats that these guys have come to me with, and I have added all those threats up. They go in the category of everything we think that can go wrong.”
JENNIFER TROSPER: In the back of your mind you’re like, “This is a billion-dollar national asset. This could be a complete disaster.”
GFX LOWER THIRD: 10 MONTHS UNTIL LAUNCH
PRODUCTION ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE: Spirit test bed: “Okay, we’re ready. Here we go.”
JPL ENGINEERS AT WORK
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