Richard Leis, Jr.

The Frontier Channel article Orbit Obtained: MRO Makes it to Mars said

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) performed a flawless engine burn today in a successful bid to enter orbit around Mars. The event, known as Mars Orbital Insertion (MOI), is a risky one for robotic visitors to the Red Planet. Now that MRO is safely in orbit, the spacecraft will soon begin several months of aerobraking to reshape the orbit into a circle approximately 300 km above the martian surface. The primary science phase of the mission will begin in the fall after aerobraking has been completed.
 
At the University of Arizona, an audience of students, the public, reporters, and other guests watched live NASA TV coverage of the event. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera is one of the instruments on board MRO and is operated by a team at the University of Arizona. HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen and operations team members were on hand for presentations, narration of the television coverage, and answers to audience questions. [Disclosure: Richard Leis is a HiRISE operations team member.]
 
The risks of any orbital insertion include missing the target altogether or coming in too closely. During MRO MOI, all predicted events occurred on schedule, including the loss of signal from the spacecraft while it passed behind Mars. Reacquisition of the signal from MRO occurred at around 3:15 pm Mountain Standard time, and a few minutes later flight operations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, USA confirmed that the spacecraft was in the correct initial orbit around Mars. The audience and HiRISE team applauded and cheered the successful conclusion of each major event.

Richard Leis, Jr. was the author of this article and is Operations Specialist for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). The HiRISE Camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is currently returning the highest resolution images of Mars ever captured from orbit. HiRISE operations is located on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, AZ. Part of his time is spent speaking to students and the public about HiRISE and planetary science in general.
 
Richard is also a geosciences undergraduate; Cofounder and Adviser for h+, a transhumanist club at UA; public speaker about transhumanism and related topics; Full Member of the Immortality Institute; Three Hundred Member of The Methuselah Mouse Prize; Founder, editor, and writer of the Frontier Channel; and Founder, editor, writer, and host of the RADIO Frontier Channel.
 
Richard authored Potential Liquid Water on Enceladus, From Giotto to Stardust — 20 Years of Comet Exploration, USGS Ramps Up Earthquake Monitoring Effort, Raw Images of Active Beauty, New Horizons Launched to Pluto and Beyond, Titan, Flyby 11, Stardust Returns Comet Material to Earth, Stardust Returning, "It's about life" - Mark McAllister and the 2.0 Project, Technical Diving from Florida to Cyberspace, An Interview with Becca Walker, and An Interview with Geologist Jay Quade.
 
Listen to his podcasts Life Extension: Sooner Than You Think, Landing On Mars, The Astronomical Council of Doom, and Let's Bomb the Hell out of a Comet.