Unmanned space flight has received a tremendous boost with the successful landing of a satellite on one of Saturn's moons.
In a near-flawless mission the probe Huygens parachuted on to Titan, relaying back scientific data as it slowly descended.
Huygens landed yesterday at about 12.45 p.m. Irish time. Mission controllers expected the satellite to work for about three minutes once it arrived but it surprised and delighted them with more than two hours of data beamed back from the surface.
The €2.5 billion 25-year joint effort by the European, Italian and US space agencies was last night congratulated by the President, Mrs McAleese.
The European Space Agency and the Discover Science and Engineering initiative had set up a live link with ESA's flight control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, and she visited its stand after presenting the top awards in the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition at the RDS in Dublin.
"I think it is a glory day," she said last night. "I am lucky enough to remember the moon-landings and that was a glory day." She described the success as a "triumph of co-operation" given the international effort behind the satellite.
Yesterday the Darmstadt centre received confirmation that Huygens's parachutes had opened and the probe's six instruments were functioning.
The European-led Huygens mission could not have worked without its sister satellite, the US- built Cassini probe, currently orbiting Saturn. The two were launched together seven years ago and have travelled two billion miles to reach their rendezvous with Saturn, its rings and its moons.
The two went into Saturnine orbit on July 1st last and Huygens detached from Cassini on Christmas morning for its solitary but spectacular sojourn to Titan.
Just after 6 a.m yesterday Cassini turned to position its antenna towards Huygens during its descent to Titan. Cassini served as Huygens's relay station, first recording and then broad- casting the data back to earth.
Titan is the solar system's only moon which has an atmosphere and scientists want to know more about it because it could be similar to the atmosphere which formed around the early Earth.