American Technology: Still Kicking Butt Without Breaking A Sweat.

Imagine this: you send a spacecraft on a multi-million mile voyage to another planet - the equivalent of hitting a beach ball in Boston with a grain of sand thrown from New Orleans - and oh by-the-way, while it's on it's final descent you take a picture of it with another spacecraft you have orbiting the above mentioned planet. Really:



That's the Mars Phoenix spacecraft under it's braking parachute as it descends to the surface, taken from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The technology and know-how necessary to do this is staggering; the ease with which the US does it, even more so.

And our closest competitors? They have a hard time hitting a planet 120 miles below. Not for the first time, either.