Direct from the Hayden Planetarium to us, Neil Tyson is on planetary radio. Hi everyone and welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final

frontier.

I'm at Kaplan. A special welcome this week to

our new listeners on XM Public Radio, channel 133. We hope you'll join us every

week as we explore the Cosmos. And who better to explore it with

than the director of the Hayden Planetarium and host of the Nova Ministries origins?

Neil Degrass Tyson will be with us in just a couple of minutes.

Later we'll join Bruce Betts for a what's up look at the sky and his new space trivia

contest.

We'll get our voyage underway with these headlines from around the galaxy.

Flight Commander Eileen Collins and her crew were at NASA's Kennedy Space Center last week, familiarizing

themselves with equipment they'll use when Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off on its return to flight mission.

The late May or early June launch will be the first since the Columbia accident. Discovery will test new safety

systems and deliver supplies to the International Space Station. Back in Houston,

hundreds of scientists were gathering to learn what the Huygens probe is telling

us about Saturn's Moon Titan.

They heard a hair-raising tail about the little spacecraft's bumpy ride down to the surface completed as it sent back data

that has both delighted and mystified its masters back on Earth.

You can read the full story and see some of the titanic images at planetary.org.

Looking past our own neighborhood, expect news from NASA this week about the search for

extra solar planets.

The Spitzer Space Telescope has apparently made some exciting discoveries about these worlds

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