It was a celebration reminiscent of the scene in Mission Control when Apollo 11 landed. Controllers whooped and waved and hugged each other like long-lost relatives. The Spirit has landed. The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is the first of two robotic vehicles NASA sent to the Red Planet. The other, Opportunity, is scheduled to land later this month. Spirit's bouncy landing came after the European Space Agency lost contact with its own lander, Beagle 2. In fact, Spirit's touchdown in the Gusev Crater is the first successful Mars landing since 1997.

As scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena (CA) were whooping it up on news that the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit had successfully landed on the Red Planet, it was quite a different scene half a world away. The European Space Agency's Beagle 2 rover, which was slated to land on Mars Christmas Day, has yet to be heard from. Sunday, British scientists say powerful radio telescopes trying to pick up evidence of Beagle's survival have found nothing. They also say the best way to contact Beagle -- its mothership, Mars Express -- is in the wrong place and had to be moved. The Mars Express orbiter was moved last week into a lower polar orbit. That was part of the plan. But apparently, it's the wrong orbit -- or at least, not the one ESA officials had hoped for.