NASA's Phoenix spacecraft landed in the northern polar region of Mars on May 25 to begin a three-month probe of a site likely to have frozen water within reach of the lander's robotic arm.
Radio signals received at 7:53:44 Eastern Time confirmed that the Phoenix Mars Lander had survived its difficult final descent and touchdown 15 minutes earlier. The signals took that long to travel from Mars to Earth at the speed of light.
Among those in NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, was US space agency's administrator Michael Griffin, who noted that this was the first successful Mars landing without airbags since Viking 2 in 1976.
"For the first time in 32 years, and only the third time in history, a JPL team has carried out a soft landing on Mars," Griffin said, adding, "I couldn't be happier to be here to witness this incredible achievement."
During its 422-million-mile flight from Earth to Mars after launching on August 4, 2007, Phoenix relied on electricity from solar panels during the spacecraft's cruise stage. The cruise stage
was jettisoned seven minutes before the lander, encased in a protective shell, entered the Martian atmosphere. Batteries provide electricity until the lander's own pair of solar arrays spread open.