Thanks to Congressman John Culberson, I watched live video from the control room, unpolished by NASA and up close and personal!
Here’s one of the first images sent back by Phoenix:
The congressman seems to have a genuine passion for the sciences and it was obvious he was having a blast in there! As one of the people, who were in the chatroom watching, said "He’s a kid in a candy store."
He was also watching the chatroom while he recorded the video, so we were able to actually ask questions to the NASA personnel, through Congressman Culberson. It was really a pretty exciting opportunity!
For more updates and pictures, be sure to check out the Spaceflight Now website: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/phoenix/status.html