PUBLIC INFORMATION 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 

Cassini Launch Status
September 17, 1997

The Cassini Saturn orbiter, with the Huygens Titan probe back 
onboard, have been successfully mated with the Titan IV/Centaur 
at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and a new launch 
date of October 13 has been requested and is expected to be 
approved, program officials reported. The launch date will be 
announced by the U.S. Air Force, which is providing launch 
services for the Cassini mission. 

If the launch date is scheduled for Monday, October 13, the 
launch time would be 4:55 a.m. EDT (1:55 a.m. PDT). The launch 
time moves earlier by about six minutes each day in the primary 
launch period, which runs through Nov. 15. 

Engineers and technicians from the European Space Agency and its 
contractors quickly completed clean-up and repair work on the 
Huygens Probe last week after a small area of the probe's 
thermal protection blanketing and insulating foam was damaged by 
overly forceful air from a launch pad cooling system. The probe 
and orbiter were given a clean bill of health, joined together 
once again, and rolled out to the launch pad on Sunday. Mating 
with the launch vehicle was completed Monday.

"We're back on track and have high confidence we will launch 
within the optimum launch period," said Deputy Program Manager 
Ronald Draper at JPL. Draper said a review board is meeting this 
week to determine the cause of the air conditioning incident and 
to establish a process to avoid any similar problem for other 
spacecraft in the future.

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