Rocket Boy, Homer Hickam remembers an October sky, 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. This week we mark the 50th anniversary of the

Space Age. October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union announces to a stunned world that it has put the first human-created object

in orbit.

And when Sputnik I passed over Homer Hickam's little mining town of Colwood, West Virginia, he instantly realized what he wanted to do

with the rest of his life.

He would later document those days in his book, Rocket Boys, which in 1999 would become a terrific movie called October Sky.

We'll visit with Homer as he prepares for the October Sky Festival in his old hometown

and hear how the rockets he built with his buddies led to years of

work with NASA and space shuttle astronauts.

Homer will also tell us about his latest literary projects.

What happened to the Mars Global Surveyor?

Emily Loch Duwala knows and she'll tell all in this week's edition of Q&A.

Shiver me Timbers, space pirates, hijack what's up, but we'll make sure you still get to hear about

the night sky from Bruce Betts and learn who has won a planetary radio t-shirt.

Just a few seconds to spare for space headlines in this auspicious week.

Dawn is on its way to Vesta and Series, those biggest of all asteroids.

The spacecraft will be the first to orbit two heavenly bodies.

You can read all about it at planetary.org, where there's also a great new detailed update

on spirit and opportunity, back in business on Mars.

Time for Emily.

By the way, her blog at planetary.org settles once and for all the greatest question of our age.

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