Okay, maybe we are a great country

We're running a bizarre national election, we're fighting a stupid war in the Sandbox, we're trying to save lives in Burma, and, oh, yeah, we're landing a exploratory mission on Mars.

Rico says he doesn't know of any other country who could say all that.

"This is not a trip to grandma's house. Putting a spacecraft safely on Mars is hard and risky," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Internationally, fewer than half the attempts have succeeded."