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VOICE ONE:

This is Phoebe Zimmermann.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.Today we tell about the Cassini-Huygens (HOY-guns) spacecraft. Itwill soon be in orbit around the planet Saturn. We also tell thelatest news from the two vehicles that are exploring the surface ofthe planet Mars. We begin with a report about the first attempt by aprivate company to launch a vehicle into space.

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A rocket plane called Space ShipOne has completed the world's first privately financed manned spaceflight. The rocket plane was launched into space Monday from theMojave Civilian Aerospace Test Center near Mojave, California. Itflew to the edge of space, one-hundred kilometers above the Earth.It landed like an airplane ninety minutes later.

Sixty-three-year old Michael Melvill was the pilot of Space ShipOne. Mister Melvill said he had a problem with one of the devices onSpace Ship One, but he was able to control the aircraft. He saidlooking down at the Earth from space was almost a religiousexperience. Thousands of people watched the event in California.

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The rocket plane was built by theScaled Composites company of California. Aviation designer BurtRutan (roo-TAN) planned the project. Mister Rutan is already famousfor designing and building the first airplane to fly around theworld without stopping for fuel. The plane called Voyager did thisin nineteen-eighty-six.

Paul Allen helped pay for the fight of Space Ship One. He is oneof the founders of the Microsoft computer software company. MisterAllen says he spent more than twenty-million dollars on the project.He says he has wanted to be part of space research ever since he wasa small boy.

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Space Ship One was carried into the air by another airplanedesigned by Mister Rutan. An aircraft named the White Knight carriedthe smaller Space Ship One to an altitude of fifteen kilometers. Itthen released Space Ship One. Pilot Melvill then fired the rocketsthat gave it the power needed to reach space.

Space Ship One was designed to reach an area of space calledsub-orbital. This is just below the area where a spacecraft wouldenter an orbit around the Earth.

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Mister Rutan and Mister Allen say they believe the successfulflight of Space Ship One is proof that privately financed spaceflight is possible. They say it is also proof that private companiescan work in space in the future without government help.

Mister Rutan says this first successful flight of Space Ship Oneis only the beginning of many more flights in the future. He sayssome of these future flights may include passengers who might payabout ten-thousand dollars each for a flight into space.

The flight of Space Ship One was astep toward an international competition called the Ansari X prize.The competition is to create a reusable aircraft. The aircraft mustbe able to launch a pilot and two passengers into sub-orbital spaceand bring them back safely two times within two weeks. The prize isten-million dollars. At least twenty-seven teams from severalcountries are reportedly working to compete for the prize. It mustbe claimed by the end of this year.

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On July first, the Cassini-Huygens(HOY-guns) spacecraft will arrive at the planet Saturn. It will movetoward Saturn from below the famous rings that circle the planet. Asit passes through Saturn's rings, it will turn its cameras down tophotograph the rings. The rings are made of dust and small rocks.

Cassini will cross through a large space between two of the hugerings. Just after the spacecraft passes through the rings, it willfire its rocket engines. This will cause it to slow its speed,permitting the spacecraft to be captured by Saturn's gravity. Inthis way, the Cassini spacecraft will enter an orbit around Saturn.

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Cassini has already sent back important information. On Juneeleventh, it passed within two-thousand kilometers of Saturn's moon,Phoebe. NASA scientists say the photographs of Phoebe showedevidence of large amounts of ice.

The photographs showed the ice was covered with a thin amount ofdark material. It also showed huge holes in the surface of the moon.

Torrence Johnson is the Cassini imaging team member at NASA's JetPropulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He says thephotographs of Phoebe are very unusual and important. Mister Johnsonsaid the photographs show the moon may be a rock from the beginningof our solar system.

He says Phoebe may have been formed aboutfour-and-one-half-thousand-million years ago. Mister Johnson says itis important to use all of the instruments that Cassini carries inan effort to learn all possible information about this small moon.Scientists plan to use the information gathered by Cassini's eleveninstruments to understand what Phoebe is made of and its size.

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When Cassini flew by Phoebe, it completed its first task in afour-year exploration of Saturn. Cassini is to pass near and gatherinformation from seven of Saturn's thirty-one known moons.

The most important moon it will investigate is the huge moonTitan. It will pass by Titan forty-four times to gather information.It will do this during seventy-four orbits of Saturn.

On December twenty-fifth, theCassini-Huygens spacecraft will separate into two parts. The Huygenspart of the spacecraft will begin its twenty-one day trip to thesurface of Titan. It is to land on the surface of Titan on Januaryfourteenth of next year.

Titan is a big moon. It is larger than the planet Mercury and ourown moon. It is of extreme interest to scientists because it is theonly moon in the solar system with its own atmosphere.

The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched from the KennedySpace Center in the southern state of Florida on October fifteenth,nineteen-ninety-seven. Seventeen nations took part in building thespacecraft. The American Space Agency, NASA, built and controls theCassini orbiter. The European Space Agency built the Huygens lander.The Italian Space agency provided some of Cassini's communicationsequipment.

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In April, the two NASA vehicles on the surface of Mars completedtheir three-month exploration of the Red Planet. NASA officialsdecided to extend the working life of the two vehicles, Spirit andOpportunity. NASA reports that both Spirit and Opportunity are stillworking successfully.

Spirit has driven more than three kilometers since arriving onMars five months ago. It now has reached an area called the ColumbiaHills. Scientists think rocks in the Columbia Hills may provideinformation about how hills form on Mars. The hills may holdinformation that will tell scientists if this part of Mars was wet.

Scientists have seen the Columbia Hills before. Innineteen-ninety-seven, scientists could see the hills with thecameras of the Mars Pathfinder vehicle. But they could not bereached by the Pathfinder.

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Half way around the surface of Mars, NASA's Opportunity vehicleis also still exploring.

Earlier this month, Opportunity began exploring a large areacalled the Endurance Crater. The crater is about the size of a largesoccer football field. It may have been made by a huge object thathit the Martian surface many years ago.

Scientists who are controlling Opportunity moved the vehicle intothe crater very carefully and slowly. First they moved Opportunity ashort way down the side of the crater. Then they moved it back out.They wanted to make sure its six wheels would be able to climb backout of the crater. Opportunity has already used many of itsinstruments to study the inside of the crater.

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NASA officials who control Opportunity have begun to use aspecial command to shut down the vehicle during the Martian night.The command is called "deep sleep." This method saves energy andpermits the vehicle to work as much as three times longer during theMartian day. However, the "deep sleep" command is not without risk.NASA scientists say it is possible that a device on the vehiclecalled the thermal emissions spectrometer may be damaged. They saythis has not happened yet. However, as Mars moves into its winterseason, officials say the spectrometer will be lost.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced byMario Ritter. This is Phoebe Zimmermann.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English.