Does anyone know of anyway to check to see, if Outlook can send an e-mail?

The following code runs:

loOutlook = CREATEOBJECT('outlook.application')
loNameSpace = loOutlook.GetNameSpace("MAPI")

*This is where the code fails if the Exchange Server is down. Is there some check I can do before running this code?
loRecipient = loNameSpace.CreateRecipient("Monte Murdock")

Thank you,

MOnTe