A Phoenix has begun its journey to Mars this week on planetary radio. I'm Matt Kaplan. Hi everyone, welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan. Principal investigator Peter Smith gave us a preview

last week. Now his lander is well past the moon, winging its way to the red planet. We'll talk with my colleague Amir

Alexander who is at the Kennedy Space Center just before the August 4 launch.

Then we'll hear from John Lomberg, creator of the Visions of Mars DVD, a library of all things

Martian that will land with Phoenix next May. Maybe your name is part of the cargo.

It was a busy week in space exploration, the countdown for shuttle Endeavor's next mission

had gotten underway before we put this show to bed.

NASA has targeted the launch for the evening of Wednesday, August 8.

You've probably heard that Barbara Morgan is a member of the STS 118 crew.

Ms Morgan is the teacher who served as Krista McAuliffe's backup back in 1986.

That was the ill-fated last mission of Shuttle Challenger.

Now she finally gets her chance to become the first educator astronaut on this trip

to the International Space Station. NASA Associate Administrator Alan Stern

held a science briefing last week. He and others provided updates on several missions including

Cassini. The Saturn Orbiter is expected to do something amazing in March of 2008.

Well, actually just one more item on its long list of amazing accomplishments.

The probe may fly just 30 kilometers above Saturn's Moon and Salidus right through a plume of water that is geysering out of the little globe.

That should be quite a show.

Time to check in with Emily Loch Duwala.

Her Q&A this week expands on one of the Phoenix topics we covered

with Peter Smith.

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