NASA's InSight lander touched down on the surface of Mars just before noon on Monday. When it did, the NASA engineers responsible for getting the lander there erupted into celebration. One celebration by two engineers, ID'd as Brooke and Gene, celebrated in a manner that was worthy of NFL players after a touchdown.
I was at the Chiefs game where @marquisegoodwin did this after a TD. NASA engineers celebrating the Mars touch down... one is actually a Chiefs fan but liked his celebration so much, she practiced for 6 weeks getting it right. Respect! pic.twitter.com/Wm4bGIGq9g
— Michele Steele (@ESPNMichele) November 27, 2018
And there was a reason for that.
The two engineers' celebration, which included hand slaps, air punches, forearm bashes, shimmy shakes, fist pumps, and a high-five (as described by a recent CNN article), was inspired by a touchdown celebration performed by San Francisco 49ers wide receivers Marquise Goodwin and Kendrick Bourne back in September when the team played the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.
Neither engineer is a 49ers fan, though. They just liked the celebration. Gene is an avid New England Patriots fan while Brooke was actually cheering for the 49ers' opponent, the Chiefs, that Sunday afternoon. Both loved the NFL celebration so much that they started studying and practicing it over the weeks that followed.
"We knew we were sitting together in the control room, and we thought it would be kind of fun just for the two of us," said Brooke via CNN. "We saw something that we liked from a previous game, and we kind of mimicked it."
#49ers scoring drive: 7 plays, 87 yards in 2:37 resulting in the Goodwin TD. #SFvsKC pic.twitter.com/4kKX6pmytG
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) September 23, 2018
H/t to Andrew Siciliano of NFL Network and Cam Inman of Bay Area News Group for the find.
