How NASA scientists paid homage to 49ers' receivers after successful landing of Mars craft – East Bay Times

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The touchdown celebration dates back to 1965, when New York Giants receiver Homer Jones caught a 89-yard touchdown pass on the first play of a game and punctuated the deed by spiking the football in the end zone.

That's according to a 2009 Bleacher Report story, and I think we should stick with it.

Since then the two-step TD has become one of the foremost examples of cultural and artistic expression in the world.

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And, as of Monday, out of this world – thanks to some choreographed ebullience dreamed up by San Francisco 49ers receivers Marquise Goodwin and Kendrick Bourne.

On Monday the Mars InSight Lander made a safe touch-down (get it?) On the red planet after a six-month, 300 million-mile, $ 828-million journey. The final seven minutes of the flight were the most harrowing for NASA brains monitoring the landing from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Because of the time lapse to get a transmission from Earth to Mars, they could only sit on their hands and hope.

"We can not joystick the landing, so we have to rely on the commands we pre-program into the spacecraft," Rob Grover, InSight's EDL (entry, descent and landing) lead explained in a recent statement.

We'll spare you the suspense: The Lander stuck the landing, inspiring some of the best and brightest NASA engineers to appropriate the frenetic jollification dreamed up by Goodwin and Bourne. Take a peek:

Here is the real hand jive. Compare and contrast to your heart's content:

P.S .: It was not just NASA celebrating the Mars landing.

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