NASA looks for a new boss as a new super Mars rover takes shape on planetary radio. Radio.

Hi everyone and welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final frontier. I'm Matt Kaplan.

Space headlines are coming up, but we'll be giving special attention

to what may have been the two biggest space stories of the week.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe announced his resignation.

He'll soon be taking over as the Chancellor of LSU in his home state of Louisiana.

We'll hear from O'Keefe and former NASA Associate Administrator Wes Huntress.

And Wes will be sticking around to talk about a milestone reached by the Mars Science Laboratory,

the big nuclear-powered rover heading for the red planet in 2009.

Here's that look at what else is going on in our universe.

Deep Impact will become more than a movie on July 4, 2005.

That's when a probe by that name will smack into a comet at more than 20,000 miles per hour.

The resulting explosion will tell us more than we've ever known about the interior of these so-called dirty snowballs.

Deep Impact is on schedule for launch in mid-January.

Cassini's first fly-by of another moon of Saturn has resulted in more surprises.

Little Dioni's surface appears to be covered by very complex braided fractures with steep cliff faces, the features may be made of newly exposed ice.

Cassini is also ready for the Christmas release of the Huygens probe that will descend through the thick atmosphere of Titan in January.

And science has named as the year's greatest scientific achievement the confirmation of

past surface water by the Mars Exploration Rovers.

Editors of the journal said there wasn't much doubt about the winner.

Spirit, opportunity, and the team behind them have made the first discovery of another place in the universe

where life could once have existed.

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