Thank you CAP-team for sharing that - I haven't integrated the information yet, but I appreciate your generosity.

On a different issue, the following quote was culled from the 'significant events' section on NASA's Cassini-Huygens website dated :

Friday, March 14 (DOY 074):

The final delivery of Cassini Information Management System (CIMS) inputs for orbits 123-134 occurred today. This is the fourth and final delivery of CIMS inputs prior to sequence integration. Orbits 123-134 are contained within the S55 through S61 sequences at the end of the proposed extended mission.

We are now 14 weeks from the end of Cassini's prime mission. Surely the extended mission is no longer 'proposed' !!!!!

My boss needs more notice than that for me to book my holidays....

As far as I know the extended mission is not yet approved by NASA (but no doubt it will be!), so it is de jure still "proposed"
Check the Cassini web site http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/index.cfm: "The events listed below are proposed pending official approval of an extended mission."

With the changes in NASA management discussed here today, one wonders.
Of course, it would take a gibbering madman to consign Cassini to Saturn's core just yet......

Well, the representatives from Mimas are probably enemies of the mission, given the discrimination they have faced in flyby targeting

Luck of the draw............they get their moment a couple of years hence - everyone's dream, an extreme Herschel close-up in the NAC, sub 10,000km.

It's official now

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-rele....cfm?newsID=833

If you look at the Saturn XM tour dates and other space missions timelines, you will see that October will be like a space geek's dream:

Oct. 6 - Mercury flyby (MESSENGER)
Oct. 9 - Enceladus flyby, Cassini flying through the plume again
Oct. 28 - LRO and LCROSS launch (according to Space.com. The official web site says only that they will be launched by end of 2008)
Oct. 31 - another Enceladus flyby

... and a potential nightmare for the Deep Space Network.

Don't forget the Hubble servicing mission....also in October.

The Hubble servicing mission is scheduled for August 28.

From nasaspaceflight.com,

"Atlantis remains in the midst of processing for the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, which is classed as an October 6 NET (No Earlier Than) launch target as a best case scenario "

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?cid=5403

Interesting. I was basing the date on this - http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/..._sm4/index.html

I'm working on my Cassini Real-Time Simulation and I have thus far used the encounters listed in the files mentioned earlier in this thread:


Are these dates/times still accurate?

Hi daniel,
I like the countdowns you've engineered (My word it's a looooong wait for New Horizons Pluto encounter when you see it like this)
As far as I know the reference trajectory hasn't changed appreciably - a couple of inconsequential trajectory correction manoevres have been cancelled but I think this adds up to negligible changes to the data as published.

On the eve of the last day of the Prime Mission, I'd like to extend many many congratulations to the Cassini-Huygens team for a breathtaking mission so far.
Even without the extension, this has been a marvellous ride since Jupiter encounter.
It has been almost flawless in execution, and a delight to be a party to. This applies as much to the openness and accessibility of the data as well as the ingenious trajectory designs and the instrument pointing.
As a Brit who makes no direct financial contribution to the mission, I feel privileged to be able to tap-in to the raw images as they come down, and which have been assiduously posted on a regular basis, for four years (after some initial teething troubles).

The spacecraft seems to be in rude health, and hopefully will continue to be well into the XXM.

Huge congratulations to all those involved.

Jase