Saturn Orbit Insertion and Probe Release

Date: 01 Jul 2004
Satellite: Cassini
Depicts: First segment of Cassini's tour of Saturn
Copyright: NASA

Date:	1 July 2004 through 15 February 2005
Orbit:	A - 3

This is the first part of Cassini's journey at Saturn. The arrival of the spacecraft at Saturn (through SOI) and the deployment of the Huygens Probe to Titan (January 2005) are major scientific milestones. These events determine the mission's success, and their results will shape the future of exploration around the ringed planet.

This plot gives the polar view (top) and edge-on view (bottom). In the polar view the inner dashed circle represents the orbit of Titan and the outer dashed circle represents the orbit of Iapetus. The scales on the axes are in Saturn radii.