CHICAGO, IL -- Okay, so I feel compelled to share another picture. This one is of the Phoenix during the parachute stage of landing. Remember, this is not Earth, where humans are living in orbit (in the International Space Station or on the Space Shuttle or a Russian craft or otherwise), never mind the hundreds (if not thousands) of satellites in orbit, and the millions of cameras we're able to point to the sky from any corner of our planet. No... this is Mars, 420 million miles away (that's 15 minutes at the speed of light) from any human. Mars has a grand total of two satellites in orbit, and two rovers on the ground (before Phoenix). And yet, with one satellite relaying Phoenix's signal back to mission control, the controllers managed to tilt the other satellite to a 63 degree angle and capture this image. Indeed, this is the first image of any craft landing anywhere other than on Earth, and it is spectacular to say the least.
One last other space-related update: STS-124 nonstop from Cape Canaveral to the ISS is still scheduled for an on-time lift-off at 5:02:03 PM ET on Saturday May 31st, coming up soon!
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