Following up on a tip by an amateur astronomer, Anthony Wesley of Australia, that a new dark "scar" had suddenly appeared on Jupiter...
"We were extremely lucky to be seeing Jupiter at exactly the right time, the right hour, the right side of Jupiter to witness the event. We couldn't have planned it better," said Glenn Orton, a scientist at JPL.
If JPL got the tip from Mr. Wesley, then how did they "plan" it? Are they stealing Mr. Wesley's credit?
You're misunderstanding the statement. He's saying something like "...if this were such an event that could have been forseen then planned for, we couldn't have planned it better."