AN OVERVIEW OF THE CASSINI MISSION

Cassini is a planetary mission designed to carry out a detailed explor ation of the Saturnian system. The Cassini spacecraft is composed of a NASA-provided Saturn Orbiter and an ESA-supplied Titan atmospheric pr obe. Scheduled for launch in October 1997, Cassini will take about 7 y ears to reach Saturn after a journey which includes gravity assists fr om Venus, Earth and Jupiter. In late 2004, a few weeks after the inser tion of the Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn, the Huygens pro be will be dropped into the atmosphere of Titan. Following the probe m ission, the Saturn Orbiter will carry out a 4 year tour within the Sat urn system for detailed observations of the Planet Saturn, Titan, many of the icy satellites, the rings and the magnetosphere.