Cassini receives extension Following success at Saturn, NASA
extends the Cassini mission to July 2010. April 16, 2008
Provided by NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. April 16, 2008
In this computer artist's rendering, the Cassini spacecraft
fires its engine in a maneuver that will place the spacecraft in
orbit around Saturn. Photo by Dave Seal/JPL/NASA NASA is
extending the international Cassini-Huygens mission by 2 years.
The historic spacecraft's stunning discoveries and images have
revolutionized our knowledge of Saturn and its moons. Cassini's
mission originally had been scheduled to end in July 2008. The
newly-announced 2-year extension will include 60 additional
orbits of Saturn and more flybys of its exotic moons. These will
include 26 flybys of Titan, seven of Enceladus, and one each of
Dione, Rhea and Helene. The extension also includes studies of
Saturn's rings, its complex magnetosphere, and the planet. "This
extension is not only exciting for the science community, but
for the world to continue to