The perigee of its elliptical orbit (the closest point it comes to Earth) has actually risen slightly, and is just above 200km.

BBC: Signal picked up from Russia's stranded Mars probe

Phobos-Grunt launched successfully on its Zenit rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and was dropped off into an elliptical orbit with an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of 345km.

BBC: Stricken Mars probe stays silent

Others question how NASA can claim to be making much exploratory progress when the greatest accomplishment it can point to 36 years after sending Glenn into orbit is sending Glenn back into orbit.

CNN: Victory Lap

As a result, the project's motto is "any orbit, any time, " and a big selling point is that the carrier aircraft can relocate more than 1, 300 miles without refueling to search for a suitable launch location.

WSJ: Microsoft Co-Founder to Build Massive Jet for Space Launches

On a standard chart the plot point for Bill Gates looks like Pluto's orbit.

FORBES: Rationalizing Wealth

But CEOs often feed a big talent catch to the point where entire departments revolve around that person, as if in mindless orbit.

FORBES: Why You Should Never Hire Superstar Talent