Saturn and Titan from Cassini

Just because...

This from NASA.

Explanation: Spectacular vistas of Saturn and its moon continue to be recorded by the Cassini spacecraft. Launched from Earth in 1997, robotic Cassini entered orbit around Saturn in 2004 and has revolutionized much of humanity's knowledge of Saturn, its expansive and complex rings, and it many old and battered moons. Soon after reaching Saturn, Cassini released the Huygen's probe which landed on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and send back unprecedented pictures from below Titan's opaque cloud decks. Recent radar images of Titan from Cassini indicate flat regions that are likely lakes of liquid methane, indicating a complex weather system where it likely rains chemicals similar to gasoline. Pictured above, magnificent Saturn and enigmatic Titan were imaged together in true color by Cassini earlier this year.

NASA set to fly teacher, 21 years after Challenger

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A teacher who walked out of the classroom she loved a decade ago to join the U.S. astronaut corps is scheduled to fly aboard the space shuttle Endeavour this week on a mission to the International Space Station.

NASA plans to launch Endeavour on Wednesday on a construction and resupply mission to the orbiting outpost.

The ship's cargo bay holds a short piece of the station's structural beam, a replacement gyroscope needed to keep the growing complex properly positioned in orbit, an outdoor equipment storage platform and a cargo container filled with gear for the resident crew.

But the focus of the flight, which will be the 119th for the shuttle program, falls on a petite 55-year-old crew member named Barbara Morgan, a teacher who taught school in McCall, Idaho, until joining the astronaut corps 10 years ago.

Morgan wasn't a newcomer to NASA, having trained in 1985 alongside "Teacher in Space" Christa McAuliffe, who flew with the Challenger crew in January 1986.

McAuliffe's mission ended in tragedy 73 seconds after liftoff when one of the shuttle's booster rockets failed, triggering an explosion that killed the New Hampshire high school teacher and six astronauts.

After the accident, NASA asked Morgan to serve as its Teacher in Space designee but failed to make good on its offer because a policy change imposed after the Challenger accident banned civilians from flying on the shuttle...

This from Reuters.