Significant Event Report for Week Ending 11/25/1999

Cassini Significant Event Report

For Week Ending 11/25/99

The most recent spacecraft telemetry data was acquired from the Madrid
tracking station on Monday, 11/22. The Cassini spacecraft is in an
excellent state of health and is operating normally. The speed of the spacecraft can be viewed on the "Where is Cassini Now?" web page (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm)

The first meeting for the Probe Relay Critical Sequence development was
held this week. Probe personnel at ESOC participated remotely. The CDA
(Cosmic Dust Analyzer) obtained data from two playbacks - data analysis
continues.

This week, Cassini personnel traveled to the top of the Mauna Kea volcano
in Hawaii to use the James Clerk Maxwell radio telescope (JCMT) to measure
Saturn's rings' energy output at several wavelengths. Their results will
guide the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) scientists in planning
their ring observations. CIRS will measure with extreme accuracy the
amount of energy reflected and radiated from Saturn's rings at very
short-wave radio and infrared wavelenths. The data will help scientists
learn more about the size, composition, texture, shape, and rotation of
the particles that make up the rings.

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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