Known to some in the space community as “the last battlestar,” the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft this week is on the verge of finishing its 2.2-billion-mile trip to Saturn as it prepares to get closer to the ringed planet than any other craft in history. Cassini-Huygens is set to slip between two of Saturn’s rings and then thrust into the planet’s field of gravity in a maneuver called the Saturn Orbit Insertion. Cassini then is expected to begin providing data on Saturn, its rings and its moons through the use of a dozen onboard instruments in the Huygens probe.
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Cassini Spacecraft Approaches Saturn Orbit
Posted by: Jay Lyman June 30, 2004 07:47 AMKnown to some in the space community as “the last battlestar,” the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft this week is on the verge of finishing its 2.2-billion-mile trip to Saturn as it prepares to get closer to the ringed planet than any other craft in history. Cassini-Huygens is set to slip between two of Saturn’s rings and then thrust into the planet’s field of gravity in a maneuver called the Saturn Orbit Insertion. Cassini then is expected to begin providing data on Saturn, its rings and its moons through the use of a dozen onboard instruments in the Huygens probe.