Repair Work on Cassini Huygens Probe Completed Successfully
September 11, 1997

Engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, have completed repairs to damaged thermal insulation on the European Space Agency's Huygens probe, a part of the Cassini mission to Saturn. Based on the amount of time needed to return the spacecraft to the pad from a spacecraft checkout facility and complete the work necessary to be ready for launch, NASA managershave set a tentative launch date of no earlier than Oct. 13. The launch date will be confirmed by the Air Force after the spacecraft has been mated to the Titan IV/Centaur next week.

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.

Media Relations Office
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Pasadena, Calif. 91109.
Telephone (818) 354-5011