New Milford Jet Propulsion Engineer Helps Guide Insight For Landing on Mars

NASA Insight team member from New Milford talks about the "seven minutes of terror."

An article in the New Milford Spectrum tells the story of NASA Insight team member, Kyle Cloutier from New Milford, watching the Insight probe's descent onto the surface of Mars. Traveling at 12,000 miles per hour as it began its descent 75 miles from the surface of the planet, Insight slowed to 5 miles per hour as it got ready to make a gentle landing on Mars. She told the Spectrum as it was just about to touch down is what she meant by "the seven minutes of terror."

New Milford's Kyle Cloutier is a planning and sequencing engineer with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her expertise is in the developing, building, and testing of the commands that are sent to the spacecraft.

This past Saturday, Cloutier led a discussion about the Insight Project and Mars at the John J. McCarthy Observatory which is behind New Milford High School. She credits her time at the observatory as a major influence that guided her career path.