Phoenix Has Landed!

The Mars lander Phoenix has landed.

Apparently, all is well.

I watched a live stream of audio and video coming from the control room (still going, as of this posting, if you want to see a bunch of guys in crew cuts and blue shirts shaking hands), and it was great to hear the cheers as each milestone was passed. Overheard one guy tell another off-camera, right after touchdown, "Only a quarter of a degree off axis!" Sounded like it was well within design parameters. You could almost see the high fives.

It was weird to watch, knowing that each event transmitted by the lander described an event that had already happened about fifteen minutes earlier. That is, the craft was already on the ground, having a cigarette, before the team in the control room even knew whether it had entered the atmosphere.

Great job, NASA/JPL. Continued good luck for the rest of the mission.

Visit the Phoenix Mars Mission home page. While we're waiting for real data, you can watch animations of the landing on the Phoenix video page.