![]() ![]() The spacecraft will soar less than 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) above Saturn’s cloud tops on each of its last five orbits, then spiral out beyond the rings to make successive egg-shaped loops around the planet. “Thanks to our past experience, the team is confident that we understand how the spacecraft will behave at the atmospheric densities our models predict.” “Cassini’s Titan flybys prepared us for these rapid passes through Saturn’s upper atmosphere,” said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, before Monday’s flyby. ![]() NASA announced Tuesday that the first of five such dips into Saturn’s atmosphere was successful.Ĭassini had used its rocket thrusters during many of the craft’s flybys of Saturn’s largest moon Titan, which has its own dense atmosphere. EDT) Monday, and Cassini transmitted a radio signal nearly 24 hours later confirming it survived the flyby. The spacecraft came closest to Saturn at around 0422 GMT (12:22 a.m. The plutonium-powered spacecraft made its closest brush to Saturn yet, close enough to require the activation of its chemical rocket thrusters to keep it stable.Ĭassini typically uses spinning gyro-like wheels buried inside the spacecraft to control its orientation with momentum shifts, but engineers were not sure the wheels were strong enough to counteract aerodynamic forces as the orbiter plowed through Saturn’s outer atmosphere. 15 to end the probe’s nearly 20-year mission. NASA’s Cassini orbiter sailed through the tenuous outermost reaches of Saturn’s atmosphere without trouble Monday, performing the first of five close swings nearer to the planet than any previous spacecraft before a final dive Sept. ![]() Artist’s concept of the Cassini spacecraft during one the mission’s five dives into the uppermost layers of Saturn’s atmosphere before the mission ends Sept. ![]()
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