Congratulations NASA on another job well done.

NASAÂ’s Phoenix spacecraft made a safe, flawless landing Sunday on Mars.

During the final, tense minutes of the descent, long stretches of quiet in the mission support room were punctuated by cheers and clapping as confirmation of crucial events like the deployment of the parachute were confirmed.

Then, at 7:53 p.m. Eastern time, Richard Kornfeld, the lead communications officer for entry, descent and landing, announced: “Touchdown signal detected.”

The mission controllers, wearing identical blue polo shirts made for the occasion, erupted in cheers and began hugging one another in congratulations.

“It was better than we could have possibly wished for,” said Barry Goldstein, the project manager for the mission. “We rehearsed over and over again. We rehearsed all of the problems, and none of them occurred. It was perfect, just the way we designed it.”

Two hours later, the first video transmissions came in from Mars -- indicating that the craft has arrived relatively undamaged after the voyage across the void between the two planets. And while there are additional tests to complete, it would appear that the craft is ready and able to perform all planned functions.

The articles above also explain why the mission is named the Phoenix -- the mission is making use of recycled equipment from earlier missions that were scrapped following catastrophic failures. Learning the lessons of the earlier missions, the team created a mission that "rose from the ashes" of those earlier misfortunes to bring about yesterday's success.

UPDATE: Why do we get better coverage -- and pictures -- from a foreign news source like the BBC than we do from the American media?

Posted by: Greg at 12:58 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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