Mars rover up-to-the-minute news

Watch spaceflightnow.com for breaking news related to the US Mars probe. As of this writing, it is supposed to land in less than an hour.

The latest mission reminds me of a party I went to about five years ago, at the famous home of a well-connected computer geek couple. There I met a guest who worked for NASA or one of its contractors; she had been involved in the effort to land the Deep Space 2 Mars probe, which had unfortunately been lost (as the recent Beagle probe was). I'm usually a little more tactful than this, but when she told me she was associated with the failed program, I laughed out loud and said something like "What a fiasco!" I don't think she found this very charming, as she didn't talk to me for the rest of the night.

Update

The damn thing landed safely, it seems. Watch live video of the first images from Martian surface, 11:30 pm tonight.