Facts on Cassini-Huygens:
– Cassini is a robotic spacecraft that is scheduled to arrive at Saturn on July 1, 2004.
– Launched from Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 15, 1997.
– Named after Jean-Dominique Comte de Cassini and Christian Huygens.
– The Huygens Probe is attached to Cassini, but will separate from it in December, 2004, fly to Titan (Saturn’s largest moon), and descend through Titan’s atmosphere to its surface in January, 2005.
– The Cassini-Huygens mission is an international collaboration among three space agencies. The Cassini orbiter was built and is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The European Space Agency (ESA) built the Huygens Probe. The Italian Space Agency provided Cassini’s high-gain antenna.
– Cassini project costs over $3.4 billion.
– It takes 1 hour and 24 minutes to recieve signals from Cassini (934 million miles).
Links:
Cassini-Huygens Home
Cassini FAQ
Current Position
Press Releases
Interview with Charley Kohlhase
Planetary Society News Archive
Spaceflight Now
Space Today
CNN