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NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Lifts Off
Joost Schuur writes "At 11:18 PM EDT on Monday, Opportunity, the second of 2 NASA Mars Exploration Rovers took off aboard a Boeing Delta 2 Heavy rocket after several delays and begun its 305 million mile trip to the Red Planet, where it will join its sister vehicle Spirit, which launched June 10th. Spirit and Opportunity will land on opposite sides of Mars, travelling up to 40 meters a day, and use a series of instruments to search for water, including the Rock Abrasion Tool, which will grind into rocks to give scientists a peak inside. Things are going to get crowded next January in orbit, as both NASA missions join the European Mars Express mission also launched this month and the Japanese Nozomi probe, which would finally complete its troublesome 5 year journey. Those stuck on Earth can take advantage of the closest Mars opposition in 60,000 years and watch with a telescope, or follow the images provided by the International MarsWatch 2003 group."
On the 7th of August there will we a Webcast on "Mars Exploration".
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planetary.org
Discovery.com
Some of the context is redundant, the first link is the most informative.
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I guess as the others pointed out, you were referring to Columbia and STS-107.
Actually I am pretty sure this mission has been in the books for quite sometime. Especially since Earth and Mars are supposed to be in the closest configuration with respect to their orbits. A trip to Mars right now will take approximately 7-8 months and the two rovers(Spirit and Opportunity) should get to Mars by January.
Also, its not just NASA which has used the current orbit position as an advantage; the European Space Agency(ESA) and the Japanese Space Agency(NASDA i think) have also launched their respective payloads to Mars.
About Venus, I doubt if NASA will come out with a program. A whole load of factors , not the least scientific goes into allocating budget to programs. And especially right now, I would think it would be really hard for NASA to convince the govt., to fund a program to Venus. The question of selling it to the public ranks high up there among the criteria and seems tough to me.