The Genesis spacecraft rises from the ashes this week on planetary radio. Hi everyone, welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan.

Genesis team member, Roger Weens, returns to our show

with a progress report.

We also spoke to Roger last September,

just a day after the probe hit the Utah desert at 200 miles per hour,

shattering its delicate collectors and their thin films of solar wind.

Quite literally, bits of the sun. The news is surprisingly good.

Toward the end of our time together today we'll check in with Bruce Betts for

another what's up preview of the sky and this week's space trivia contest. Let's get started with

this faster-than-light review of headlines from out there beyond our small blue

planet. Space Shuttle Discovery has been made to its external tank and solid rocket boosters.

Now it's ready for the slow roll out to the launch pad from the vehicle assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center.

NASA still hopes for a May 15 lift-off,

but that's not going to happen unless the Return to Space Task Force

is satisfied with improvements made since the loss of Columbia.

Still lots happening out at Saturn, where the Cassini Orbiter has had its fifth close encounter with Titan.

This time the spacecraft took a look at a part of the big moon that hadn't yet been imaged in detail, at least

with a camera.

The probe's radar instrument has done a great job of mapping much of the surface.

You can see samples of these radar images and a host of other pictures at planetary.org.

And here's a story we had first thought might be an April Fool's joke.

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