Wow, I just watched NASA TV as the Phoenix lander touched down on the northern plains of Mars, while also monitoring a planetary society chat room (elakdawalla's Ustream page) with a bunch of fellow enthusiasts. It was awesome, especially because the spacecraft landed safely!
The last three successful landings used airbags for a bounce landing. This one was like the earlier Viking landings in the 70s, using thrusters for the last hundred or so meters. Very cool stuff.
Looking forward to digging down into the ice and seeing if anything like earth life has ever lived on mars!
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