Just earlier this evening, the latest U.S. originated lander completed the first stage of its mission on Mars by landing perfectly on the surface on the red planet.

This is great news, not only because of the limited success of Martian landers in past years, but also because the Phoenix represented the first huge challenge in landing heavier and possibly even manned spacecraft.  Unlike previous landers which landed with the use of balloons and other cusioning, Phoenix has landed only with the use of thrustors slowing the decent of the spacecraft.

The first images from the lander should reach Earth and be made public tonight around 9:30 Eastern, 6:30 Pacific in the U.S.  We’ll be sure to sift through the best of them with a post tomorrow.  In the meantime, be sure to check out the official JPL Blog, as well as the free live stream of NASA TV for live video from the control room.  And of course, drop by this thread in our Sci / Tech board for discussion!

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