The foibles and blunders of government in the form of fraud, waste, and scandal are what taxpaying citizens usually see in the media.  Recently, these stories have expanded to include questions about the appropriateness of contractor support within government agencies and the reliance on contractor services, attracting the attention of news organizations and the candidates running for president in 2008.

So it isn't every day that we see images of federal employees and contract support staff cheering in wild celebration while the rest of the world looks on, but this is exactly what happened last Sunday evening when the Phoenix spacecraft landed in the northern polar region of Mars to begin a three month mission in which it would be examining a site that is believed to have frozen water under its surface, from where the lander will dig with its robotic arm in order to raise samples.

For the first time in 32 years, and only the third time in history, a NASA team has carried out a soft landing on Mars.  Mission team members at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver; and the University of Arizona, Tucson, celebrated confirmation of the landing and eagerly awaited further information from Phoenix.

Further excitement came when NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter successfully received information from the Phoenix Mars Lander and relayed the information to Earth and then again when it successfully started to move the robotic arm with which it will probe the Red Planet’s permafrost in search of the building blocks of life.
 

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said the complexities of the Phoenix mission left it with only 1/10 chance of succeeding.  Despite these long odds, the Phoenix team hit a home run.  Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said, “even in our wildest dreams things could not have gone as well as they have.” With contributions from government, academia, and contractors, this successful mission is a testament to how government can work from planning to execution, and an example for all within and outside government.

OhMyGov! congratulates the team on its successes and looks forward to the scientific discoveries that will come with this mission.

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