Phoenix Mars Lander lands tonight @ 8pm EST

[cka]

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is scheduled to land near the Red Planet's north pole just before 5 P.M. Pacific time (8 P.M. Eastern) on Sunday. The agency said that Phoenix is on course to touch down within eight miles (13 kilometers) of the center of its elliptical landing site, "Green Valley," located at 68 degrees north latitude and 233 degrees east longitude, where it will dig into a layer of rock-solid ice thought to lie near the surface. The vehicle is slated for a three-month tour to study the history of water on Mars.

Phoenix will enter Mars's atmosphere at a speed of roughly 12,750 miles (20,520 kilometers) per hour. During the next "seven minutes of hell," it will slow from a combination of contact with the atmosphere, drag from a parachute and bursts from its thrusters [see animation below]. If it lands successfully, it would be the first craft to set down on Mars under its own power since the Viking 2 lander in September, 1976. NASA's last rocket engine–powered landing attempt—the Mars Polar Lander—crashed to its doom in December 1999.

The earliest time that mission controllers could hear back from Phoenix after landing is 4:53 P.M. Pacific time on Sunday.

Exciting times!

live stream: http://www.nasa.gov/55644main_NASATV_Windows.asx (there's a press conference on right now, the Phoenix coverage doesn't start until 6:30pm)

JPL's Phoenix site: http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/

edit: lol a first-person account of the landers status http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/14693823.rss

[icarusfall]

Andromeda Strain imo

[Thief Silver]

Andromeda Strain imo

This was on today.

[cka]

there's live updates going on on nasa tv right now, they just warmed up the re-entry slowdown rockets :3

[cka]

fuck yeah it landed without incident, almost textbook-like

and nasa is chock full of the happiest nerds on earth right now

[Othello Harrington]

Man, I thought landing on the carrier was hard on top gun.

Chux may be needed in the future

I can't wait to see this sucker in action.

[Andrew]

Is the live stream going to include footage from the actual lander (akin to the lunar landing), or just up-to-date info that I can watch later?

[cka]

you'll probably be seeing the footage all freakin' week but it's still a sight to behold watching it live with all the nasa nerds

(they're going to start broadcasting live again in 45 minutes with footage from the descent and primary footage post-landing I think)

[Advocate]

Why is the Phoenix Mars logo exactly like the Firefox Logo?

watching it now.

[Andrew]

Watching too... Right now they're all still standing around their desks.

Haha... There's a bearded guy sitting at a desk labeled BLOG. I guess he would be the official NASA blogger. I want that job.