NASA's "Spirit" Exploration Rover appears to have arrived safely on the red planet this evening. The robot geologist touched down, sending back a simple message of its landing.
"…Tonight another first was made, for the first time in human history … we have an interplanetary communications network. We went from the rover, to Odyssey [Mars satellite] to Earth to the Deep Space Network. So we've now established a communications satellite system over another planet for the first time in history…" — Dr. Ed Weller, NASA
Link to Spaceflight Now, an independent site with up-to-the-minute updates (via /.), Link to NASA TV's coverage. (Thanks, JP and Bren!)
