Cassini/Huygens approaching Saturn and Titan

Paris, 26 May 2004
Press Release
N° 28-2004

Cassini/Huygens approaching Saturn and Titan

Launched in October 1997, the ESA/NASA Cassini-Huygens mission* is
currently heading for Saturn. While ESA's Huygens probe will be the first
ever to land on the surface of a moon in the outer Solar System, NASA's
Cassini orbiter will continue to explore Saturn and its rings.

After an almost seven-year journey and four gravity-assist swing-by
manoeuvres the spacecraft will be inserted into its orbit around Saturn on
30 June (Pacific Daylight Time, 1 July CET) and reach its closest approach
to Saturn. The Huygens probe will be detached from its mother ship on 25
December and land on Titan in January next year.

On 3 June a press conference will take place at NASA Headquarters,
Washington, with ESA participation, to present the mission and outline
milestones and upcoming media activities.

Media representatives can follow this press conference from ESA/ESOC,
where several project representatives will be present, together with David
Southwood, ESA Director of Science, or from one of the other ESA
establishments. They are requested to complete the attached reply form and
fax it to the Communication office at the establishment of their choice.

The ESA TV service will also broadcast the press conference via Eutelsat
W1. Further information concerning the retransmission schedule can be
found on http://television.esa.int.


* The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperation between NASA, the European
Space Agency and ASI, the Italian space agency. The Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, is managing the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science,
Washington.



For further information:
Franco Bonacina
ESA Media Relations Division
Tel:+33.(0)1.5369.7155
Fax:+33.(0)1.5369.7690

Don Savage
NASA Public Affairs, Office of Space Science
Tel:+1.202.358.1727
Fax:+1.202.358.3093

ESA website: http://saturn.esa.int
NASA website: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov


Cassini/Huygens press conference
At ESA/ESOC
3 June 2004

PROGRAMME

15:30 Doors open/registration

15:45 Start of broadcast programme

15:50 Statement by David Southwood, ESA Director of Science, live from
ESOC

16:00 Retransmission of the press conference from NASA Headquarters,
Washington
Participants:
Ed Weiler, Director of NASA's Science Programme
Robert Mitchell, NASA's Cassini Programme Manager
Jean-Pierre Lebreton, ESA's Project Scientist and Mission Manager

16 :50 Questions and answers

17 :00 End of press conference


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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info