Team behind historic Perseverance rover landing includes 3 Fil-Ams

Among the thousands of scientists and technicians involved in NASA's Perseverance rover mission to Mars were three Filipino-American engineers.

Among them was Flight Software Engineer Genevie Velarde Yang, who was at mission control when Perseverance landed on the Red Planet.

"They told me two weeks before that I would be sitting in the middle of mission control. I was shocked! I was very honored," said Yang in Raffy Tima's Monday 24 Oras report.

Yang, who was part of the uplink team that sends commands to the Mars rover, was born in Laguna's Biñan City. Her family migrated to California when she was five years old.

Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) Systems Engineer Gregorio Villar, was among those who provided mission control with updates when Perseverance made its landing attempt - known as the "seven minutes of terror."

However, for Villar it lasted a little longer as he had to go through a checklist before Guidance and Controls Operations Lead Dr. Swati Mohan could announce "Touchdown confirmed!"

"I really couldn't celebrate till after that," he explained.

Villar finished high school at Baguio City's Saint Louis University before moving to the US.

Though he had been working on the Perseverance mission for eight years, he was also thinking of his next goal - to head out to space himself as an astronaut.

Lead Electromagnetic Compatibility Engineer Edward Gonzalez, meanwhile, worked on Perseverance's communication systems.

"That incredible picture that you saw, the top of Perseverance? The camera that took that picture, we were worried that that would cause interference with the rest of the landing. So we had to make sure that that did not absolutely interfere with the landing," Gonzalez explained.

"And it turned out beautiful!"

While Gonzalez was born in the US, his parents were from Quezon City and Cavite.

He expressed a desire to help the Philippine space program and the Philippine Space Agency. — DVM, GMA News