NASA's boss and your ticket to space this week on planetary radio. Hi everyone, I'm Matt Kaplan.

Welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final frontier.

And we mean that almost literally this time as we

present excerpts from a recent panel discussion about the state of space tourism.

You'll also hear a bit of what NASA administrator Mike Griffin had to say at a recent space

conference in Southern California. And Bruce Betts has a commemorative Crystal Bowl for the lucky

winner of this week's Space Trivia Contest.

That's a lot to cover, so we'll just glance at Space Headlines this week,

beginning with another major task completed by Cassini as it circles Saturn.

The spacecraft has now taken a close look at almost all of the ring planet's icy moons,

passing as close as about 100 miles or 170 kilometers.

Our own Emily Lockwala has a travel log at planetary.org.

Over on Mars, opportunity is still suffering

from a sore shoulder. Mission engineers at JPL got the rover's robotic arm to move for the first time in days, but not by much.

They're now looking at options. The problem isn't all that surprising after all

lots of seniors have joint problems right?

Speaking of space tourism, space.com has learned that Richard Branson's Virgin

Galactic may have picked a spot in New Mexico as the

spaceport for its planned suborbital flights. We'll hear more about the company

later in today's show. All those robotic space explorers of the past and present and not

one with a camcorder? Emily tells us why in this week's Q&A. I'll be right

back with NASA administrator Mike Griffin.

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