Japan reaches an asteroid 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.

Little Hayabusa has reached an asteroid named

after the father of the Japanese space program. Right now the probe is hovering

only about 20 kilometers or 12 miles above I Tukawa, carefully examining the kidney

bean-shaped rock as it prepares to collect samples for return to Earth.

Our first guest is the manager of the Hayabusa mission.

Junichiro Kawaguchi will join us from his homeland.

Then we'll get the personal insights of planetary scientists and former director of the jet propulsion lab Bruce Murray.

Bruce has been close to the Japanese space effort for many years.

That other Bruce, our own Dr. Betts, is back with an artsy space trivia contest for you, along with his report on the night sky,

and we'll be getting to Emily Lochuwala in just a minute or two.

Speaking of Emily, we'll give her the top spot in this week's review of space headlines.

Check out her update on what we're learning about Saturn's beautiful and fascinating rings.

They are turning out to be far more complex than anyone imagined.

Emily's full report from the annual division of planetary sciences meeting in England is

at planetary.org.

As we finish preparing this week's show, NASA has scheduled a press conference to describe

what they only describe as interesting changes observed by the Mars Global Surveyor

above the Red Planet.

We're as curious as you are, and we hope to have details next week.

The Senate approved the Space Agency's budget as part of a much bigger spending package.

...