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Cassini begins the three-week Rev151 on July 21 at its farthest
distance from Saturn, called apoapse. At this point, Cassini is
2.69 million kilometers (1.67 million miles) from Saturn's cloud
tops. The spacecraft is in the middle of the first equatorial
phase of the Cassini Solstice Mission, which lasts until May
2012. During this phase, the spacecraft's orbits lie within the
equatorial plane of the planet, providing opportunities to
encounter Saturn's numerous moons, to image the rings edge-on,
and to look at Saturn's cloud tops without the rings obscuring
the view. Thirty-eight ISS observations are planned for Rev151,
the vast majority designed to monitor the large northern
hemisphere storm first seen in December 2010. ISS begins its
observations for Rev151 less than an hour after apoapse with a
Saturn storm watch observation. Twelve such observations are
planned between July 21 and July 29. They are designed to take
advantage of short, two-minu