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Casini made it!

The New York Times > Science > Spacecraft Becomes First to Enter Orbit of Saturn

From today's New York Times:



PASADENA, Calif., June 30 - With precise navigation and the sustained thrust of rocket power, the Cassini spacecraft on Wednesday night became the first exploring vehicle to orbit Saturn, the faraway planet of serene beauty embellished by an exquisite array of encircling rings.

The 96-minute firing of Cassini's main braking rocket began and ended on schedule. When confirming radio signals reached the flight control center at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory here, jubilant engineers and scientists broke into applause and cheers. It was 9:12 p.m. Pacific time (12:12 a.m. Thursday, Eastern time), and they knew where their spacecraft was.

After a journey from Earth of nearly seven years, Cassini had flown apparently unscathed through an opening in the broad rings and now was orbiting Saturn, more than 800 million miles away.

Posted by Greg Stone at July 1, 2004 05:28 AM