A Star Dust at Home Update from Andrew Westfall this week on planetary Radio. Radio. Hi everyone, welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the Final

Frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan. Are they a few dozen bits of the

universe that have traveled light years to reach our solar system? The

Stardust team thinks at least some of them are and with the help of 23,000 pairs of eyes they are almost

ready to find out what they're made of. Andrew Sfall will tell us about the

great progress made with the delicate samples returned to Earth by the start of spacecraft nearly two years ago.

Emily Lachto-Wala will speculate about life on Jupiter's Moon Europa, possibly swimming around beneath that distant world's layer of ice.

And Bruce Batts will prepare you to enjoy the busy fall night sky with his What's Up report,

including a brand new space trivia contest.

Let's see, there must be some news to report from somewhere in the galaxy.

We haven't heard from our Bureau in the Crab Nebula for simply ages,

but we can tell you that NASA has given the go for a

December 6th launch of space shuttle Atlantis. Commander Steve Frick and six crewmates

will blast off for the International Space Station, where they will install the European

Space Agency's Columbus Laboratory.

That's going to require at least three spacewalks.

Out on the vast Martian wasteland, Spirit spent a few frightening days mired in dust.

The Mars Exploration Rover unwittingly rolled into a tiny crater full of the stuff, getting all six wheels stuck.

Drivers manage to free the little craft and it's now back on course for its winter

resting place.

There's a detailed update on both rovers at planetary.org.

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