The Cassini spacecraft has successfully entered orbit around Saturn, after a seven year voyage. The planet is now the most distant from Earth to be orbited by a spacecraft.
鈥淚t feels awfully good to be in orbit around the Lord of the Rings鈥� said Charles Elachi, director of NASA鈥檚 Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
Cassini successfully negotiated a gap between Saturn鈥檚 rings, a moment that Jerry Jones, the navigation team chief, considered one of the most critical. 鈥淲e鈥檇 done lot of work to make sure the path was clear, but until you come out the other side you don鈥檛 know,鈥� he said.
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Then, at 1937 PDT, mission control at JPL received the signal that the main engine had switched on. 鈥淲ithout that we鈥檇 have flown by, and Saturn would have given us a boost that would have thrown us out of the Solar System鈥� said Jones.
鈥淭he thrust was a little high; but the spacecraft knew what to do, and must have measured it perfectly, because it cut off a minute early,鈥� he added.
Call home
The 95-minute burn put Cassini into a highly elliptical with a period of about 116 days. This is so close to the required course that an orbit correction originally planned for Saturday might not be needed.
After crossing the ring plane a second time, Cassini turned its main antenna to Earth for what the JPL team dub the 鈥渃all home鈥�. This was successfully received at 2130 PDT. The spacecraft will now be able to send back pictures of the rings and other scientific data collected in its close encounter with Saturn.
The images should arrive later on Thursday, and may reveal previously unseen structures within the rings, giving clues to their mysterious origin.
The $3 billion US-European mission will then begin its planned four-year tour of Saturn and its system of moons. 鈥淭here is going to be a huge leap in our understanding of the Saturnian system鈥� says Elachi.