• Space/Science
  • GeekSpeak
  • Mysteries of
    the Multiverse
  • Science Fiction
  • The Comestible Zone
  • Off-Topic
  • Community
  • Flame
  • CurrentEvents

Recent posts

HERE WE GO, BABY! BuckGalaxy April 1, 2026 3:07 pm (Space/Science)

April Fool's Day ER April 1, 2026 7:56 am (Space/Science)

A Big Beautiful Bunker podrock March 31, 2026 10:11 am (CurrentEvents)

Artemis II is scheduled to launch on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, at 6:24 p.m. EDT BuckGalaxy March 30, 2026 3:09 pm (Space/Science)

Dragonfly mission to Titan BuckGalaxy March 29, 2026 12:01 pm (Space/Science)

It's a long long road... BuckGalaxy March 26, 2026 4:49 pm (Space/Science)

Lax Americana BuckGalaxy March 24, 2026 1:18 pm (CurrentEvents)

Glad... BuckGalaxy March 21, 2026 4:30 pm (Flame)

Blu-Ray ER March 15, 2026 11:27 am (Off-Topic)

Trump Administration Readies Plans to Dismantle Renowned Science Lab BuckGalaxy March 13, 2026 11:46 pm (Space/Science)

The Republic RobVG March 11, 2026 11:40 am (Off-Topic)

Home » Space/Science

Goodbye Cassini... September 14, 2017 4:27 pm RL

Tomorrow it plunges into Saturn…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/09/05/nasas-cassini-spacecraft-will-crash-into-saturn-its-final-screaming-success/

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/grand-finale/overview/

Since April 2017, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has been writing the final, thrilling chapter of its remarkable 20-year-long story of exploration: its Grand Finale.

Every week, Cassini has been diving through the approximately 1,200-mile-wide (2,000-kilometer-wide) gap between Saturn and its rings. No other spacecraft has ever explored this unique region.

A final close flyby of the moon Titan on April 22 used the moon’s gravity to reshape Cassini’s trajectory so that the spacecraft leapt over the planet’s icy rings to pass between the rings and Saturn. During 22 such passes over about five months, the spacecraft’s altitude above Saturn’s clouds varied from about 1,000 to 2,500 miles (1,600 to 4,000 kilometers), thanks to occasional distant passes by Titan that shifted the closest approach distance. At times, Cassini skirts the very inner edge of the rings; at other times, it skimmed the outer edges of the atmosphere. During its final five orbits, its orbit passes through Saturn’s uppermost atmosphere, before finally plunging directly into the planet on Sept. 15.

  • Postcards from the edge by mcfly 2017-09-26 11:25:48
    • The deed is done. by Robert 2017-09-15 07:02:56

      Search

      The Control Panel

      • Log in
      • Register