Cassini Significant Event Report
For Week Ending 08/16/02

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, August 14. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. Information on the spacecraft's position and speed can be viewed on the "Present Position" web page.

On-board activities this week included clearing of the ACS high water marks, a Radio Science Subsystem Ultra Stable Oscillator characterization and Periodic Instrument Maintenance, and a Radio and Plasma Wave Science High Frequency Receiver calibration.

A quarterly status review was held for RADAR Analysis Software (RAS) development. A new development schedule shows significant changes to incremental and final delivery dates due to budget reductions. Additional refinements to the schedule are in work to assure that key tour capabilities of the RAS software are ready by the Delta Tour Readiness Review.

Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer flight software version 5.1 was delivered to the Project Software Library. A pre-check of the delivered Assisted Load Format file will be performed for validation followed by a Software Review Certification Requirement meeting at the end of August.

System Engineering met with Instrument Operations (IO) personnel to review initial work on the IO level 4 Verification and Validation (V&V) plan. The plan looked good and will be issued as a template for other teams participating in V&V.

Solar System Educator Institute Training took place this week. Thirty master teachers participated in workshops about various JPL missions, including a hands-on activity for Cassini involving topographical measurements and mapping. An overview of upcoming Cassini educational and public outreach activities was also presented.

Additional information about Cassini-Huygens is online at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Cassini will begin orbiting Saturn on July 1, 2004, and release its piggybacked Huygens probe about six months later for descent through the thick atmosphere of the moon Titan. Cassini-Huygens is a cooperative mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.

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