carey sanders, you heard it from him first that that should be the name of the movie. as we've been watch all of this unfold there's machibeen so man extraordinary moments. here's just a few put together for us by our own thomas roberts. >> reporter: 33 chilean miners trapped for 69 days. >> there it is! bravosuccess! >> reporter: he's made it to the surface. finally the first miner florencio avalos reaches the surface and straight into the loving arms of his family. with that, the parade of miners to the top was on. mario sepulveda was the second to safely emerge handing out rocks to chile's president and then channelling the crowd's adrenaline rush. >> reporter: with made-for-tv characters emerging more than 1,700 journalists and camera crews at camp hope are ready to capture the dramatic capture. >> which sandra lily has been watching all night and it occurs to me that those broadcasters must be running on adrenaline as well because they've been on the air nonstop. >> absolutely and they really have done a superb job wall-to-wall the chilean television. talking abou

carey sanders starts us out tonight. >> reporter: it's over.he miners have been rescued. it took 22 hours, 34 minutes and 56 seconds. more than 1,000 engineering minds to figure out how to get down to those men. 240 feet in the earth. they pulled it off, and now this country and the world celeate that the impossible is possible. >> an inspiring experience, i'm sure, not only for the chileans, for the wholeworld. >> the last man up is the leader who, in the first 17 days when the men were cut off from the outside world, told them they should con serfsconserve the tw food they had and ration it to being two spoonfuls of food per man, peaches and tuna. that kept them alive. they made contact with the surface. a team of american drill lers came in. they made it down to the men. the fenix capsule was tested, retested, and wow, it worked. in the end, the ride up was taking less than 10 minutes. what one time thought impossible of 33 ople surviving is now true. a celebration. carey sanders, nbc news in copiapo, chile. >>> a celebration continued all d

carey sanders has our report. >> reporter: today teams here conducted a test. the escape capsule traveled 20 feet inse the steel pipe without a problem, so they went a step further and sent it down the shaft within feet of the trapped miners. >> we didn't send it down because we could risk that somebody could jump in. >> his goo moo reveals the level of confidence here. the onlyeason the minister says the rescues are not already under way is because some of the equipment is still being anchored into a concrete slab. [ bell ringing ] >> celebrations began saturday when the shaft to the men was completed and an american team drilled down almost a half mile to some of the hardest rock on earth. >> we were just so happy we did have the chance to come down here. i miean, having a chance to com down here and ma a difference with our technology, we're very, very thankful for that and extremely happy that it actually wos worked. >> soon the escape pod will be connected to a heavy duty winch. the capsule then travels down the path the first 180 feet inside the steel pip

joining me now, nbc's carey sanders and natalie morales. i'm just as excited, i don't know about you, as i have been the last couple of hours or so. a little bit of anxiety, a little bit of breath holding, but wow, it must have been ed incredible to be there. carey, you and i joked over the years about being a little jealous. well, who wouldn't want to be there right now. it must be phenomenal. >> it is. i mean, it's just like it is a wow moment. it really is. because it wasn't supposed to be possible. everybody said it was impossible. impossible for these guys to be alive after 17 days. impossible to get through this rock. for them to survive. and impossible to make this fenix get down there and bring them up. and everything that was impossible, is possible. >> they've proven that over and over again now. >> we're now 14 minutes and 11 seconds into the fenix makesing it to the surface. we see the hole right there. i think we'll see it pop up any minute. the last one was up in a little more than 15 minutes, i think. they're very close to se