Tuesday, June 29, 2004
CASSINI PUTS ON THE BRAKES
About 24 hours from now, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will fire its small rocket engine for approximately 90 minutes to slow down so that Saturn's gravity can capture it into an orbit around the ringed giant. After almost seven years in a back-and-forth slingshot trajectory that used the gravity of other planets in the solar system as boosters, Cassini must put on the brakes or it will fly on past Saturn. Good luck to the folks at JPL during another nail-biter; the third this year after the two successful Mars Exploration Rover landings.
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 6:12 AM
