Phoenix Rising
There's a rocket launching at NASA in a few days - and my name is on it. Well, mine and about a quarter-million others...

It's the Phoenix Lander mission to Mars. It's scheduled to launch August 3rd, but of course delays can always occur, so we can only wait and see. And Mars is notorious for eating spacecraft - it's a bit like Charlie Brown's kite-eating trees - so we'll have to wait another 9 months after launch to see how the landing works out.

This one will go where no Mars lander has gone before, near the Martian north pole. It's mission - dig into the surface, seek out water, and - possibly - new life, if the on-board instruments can detect any. No civilizations - any little green living things will be cellular, at best.

I was lucky enough to catch the launch of the Opportunity rover several years ago. If I time my break right at work and the sky is clear between Mount Dora and the Cape, I may see this one too. If not, I'm off when the Shuttle is scheduled to launch 4 days later, so I'll see that.

Long before the launch, The Planetary Society invited the public to submit names for inclusion on a DVD. According to the Wikipedia entry, the Phoenix DVD is made of a special silica glass that can purportedly withstand the Martian environment, lasting for hundreds (if not thousands) of years on the surface.

This has got to qualify as the best "Kilroy Was Here" stunt ever.