NASA scientists celebrated the success of the Deep Impact mission, which rammed a space probe into a comet tens of millions of miles from Earth to glean new clues about the nature of the universe. Hurtling through space at more than six miles (10 kilometers) per second, the washing machine-sized projectile crashed head-on into the Tempel 1 comet, with the collision photographed by a separate fly-by spacecraft. "What a way to kick off America's Independence Day!" Deep Impact Project manager Rick Grammier exulted about the warp speed crash, which occurred at 0552 GMT Monday. "The challenges of this mission and teamwork that went into making it a success should make us all very proud," he said.