Parking a spacecraft in orbit around another planet is a very cool experience.

I had the honor of working with some very fine people at Lockheed Martin in the early 2000’s. One of our projects was the 2001 Mars Odyssey, a spacecraft designed to orbit Mars and collect evidence of past or present water and ice. The spacecraft has also been used to relay signals from spacecraft and rovers from the surface of Mars back to Earth.

According Wikipedia’s entry, the Mars Odyssey now holds the record for the longest-serving spacecraft at Mars: 14 years, 4 months, and 3 days from the launch on April 7th, 2001.

Go Odyssey!