We here at Lintbox have been enjoying the NASAtv live feed hoping that all goes well with the Arizona Phoenix Mission and its landing on the surface of Mars. Well, we haven’t been disappointed! The landing has been successful, and for what it’s worth, we now have a shiny new laboratory on Mars!

I’d write more, but currently there is very little else to report. Because Mars is currently 1.8au away from our planet, any signal retrieved from the lander is approximately 15-16 minutes old. As a result, we’ll be retrieving the first pictures from the lander in 30 minutes or so. And rest assured, we’ll have those pictures posted here the instant they’re available!

For more information on the Phoenix, and perhaps with a better, more active recap of the mission, visit our hero Phil Plait’s awesome Bad Astronomy blog, where he’s assured to provide more information about the current Phoenix-related events as they unfold!