NASA So Cool, It Has Own LMFAO Spoof

They sport mohawks. President Obama called them cool. And now they're the subject of an MTV-worthy video. The polo-shirted crew at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory found quick fame after Curiosity's victorious landing, following its famed seven minutes of terror on Aug. 5, in part "because they looked so cool doing it," explains the Christian Science Monitor. And now, with a slick music video that cheekily applauds their style and smarts, they've truly arrived.

Set to the tune of LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It," this version is called "We're NASA and We Know It," and features a bunch of 20-somethings, a girl in an American flag bikini with a box over her head, and the refrain, "Crane lower that rover / Crane lower that rover / Crane lower that rover / N-N-Now bug out!" The Monitor digs into what it is that makes JPL so much hipper than the rest of NASA. According to a chief engineer, the fact that JPL is part of CalTech, and "allowed to think outside the box," accounts for a big part of that. And that's been the case for decades, he says, noting that in contrast to the crew-cut-sporting, button-down-wearing NASA employees of the '60s and '70s, he wore "white pants with strawberries scattered all over them." (More Jet Propulsion Laboratory stories.)