Alice Agogino served on the Advisory Board for the Engineering Division at JPL and was invited by JPL’s Director Charles Elachi to watch Curiosity’s launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida on November 25, 2011 and captured photos of the event. The photos above are from JPL’s mission control and briefing on August 5th. The photo on the left shows Agogino with the test version of the Mars Rover Curiosity. The one on the right (with her husband Dale Gieringer) was taken during the “seven minutes of terror” waiting to see if the entry, descent and landing were successful. See NASA’s simulation of these “seven minutes of terror”. The event also included a number of celebrities. Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas did a press conference with Astronaut Leland Melvin (who has over 560 hours in space) to encourage more kids to go into science. Will.i.am also watched from our briefing room and stood out as he was definitely more stylish than the other scientists and engineers there. Agogino saw Star Trek’s original communication officer, Lieutenant Uhura – actress Nichelle Nichols. Nichols has worked with NASA to help recruit women and minorities for the shuttle program.