NASA Salutes Successful Huygens Probe

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Veronica McGregor/Nancy Lovato (818) 354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Dolores Beasley (202) 358-1753
NASA Headquarters, Washington

News Release: 2005-017 January 14, 2005

NASA Salutes Successful Huygens Probe

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe today offered
congratulations to the European Space Agency (ESA) on the
successful touchdown of its Huygens probe on Saturn's moon
Titan.

"The descent through Titan's atmosphere and down to its
surface appeared to be perfect," Administrator O'Keefe said.
"We congratulate ESA for their spectacular success. We're
very proud of the Cassini-Huygens teams that helped to make
this both an engineering and scientific victory, and we
appreciate the dedication and support from our international
partners."

The probe entered Titan's upper atmosphere at about 5:15
a.m. EST Jan. 14. During
its two and one-half hour descent to the surface of the
moon, it sampled the chemical composition of the atmosphere.
The probe continued transmitting data for more than 90
minutes after reaching the surface.

The data was sent to NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and was
recorded and relayed through
NASA's Deep Space Network to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., and to ESA's Space Operations Center in
Darmstadt, Germany. The European Space Agency facility is
the operations center for the Huygens probe mission. Data
was received over one of two channels designed to be mostly
redundant.

JPL Director Dr. Charles Elachi said, "We congratulate our
colleagues at ESA on the splendid performance of the Huygens
probe and look forward to the science results of this
effort. This has been a great example of international
collaboration to explore our solar system."

Cassini-Huygens is a joint mission of NASA, ESA and the
Italian Space Agency. ESA's Huygens probe was carried to
Saturn's orbit aboard Cassini, and sent on its way to Titan
on Dec. 24, 2004. Cassini continues to orbit Saturn on a
four-year prime mission to study the planet, its rings,
moons and magnetosphere.

"Our ESA colleagues have every reason to be very proud of
the excellent manner in which the Huygens probe performed,"
said Robert T. Mitchell, Cassini program manager at JPL. "We
are also proud of our support for this endeavor," he said.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed, developed and
assembled the Cassini orbiter. ESA built and managed the
development of the Huygens probe and is in charge of the
probe operations. ISA provided the high-gain antenna, much
of the radio system and elements of several of Cassini's
science instruments.

More information about the Cassini-Huygens mission is
available on the Web, at:
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web,
visit http://www.nasa.gov .

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