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Cassini Equinox Mission

The Cassini Equinox Mission is a two-year mission extension which began on 1 July 2008. This follows the completion of the four-year nominal mission, or the Prime Mission, which ran from 1 July 2004 to 30 June 2008.

During the Equinox Mission, the Cassini spacecraft continues its tour of the Saturnian system and performs several close targeted fly-bys as well as many distant fly-bys of Saturn's moons. The targeted encounters are listed below and include 26 Titan fly-bys, 7 Enceladus fly-bys, and one fly-by each of the icy moons Dione, Rhea and Helene.

Details of the completed four-year nominal tour are available at the dedicated Prime Mission page linked from the right-hand side menu.

Saturn Moon Encounters

Orbit Moon Encounter Date* Altitude
(km)
Completed Info
2008
78 Titan 31 July 1613  Details 
80 Enceladus 11 August 54  Details 
88 Enceladus 9 October 25  Details 
91 Enceladus 31 October 197  Details 
91 Titan 3 November 1100  Details 
93 Titan 19 November 1023  Details 
95 Titan 5 December 960  Details 
97 Titan 21 December 970  Details 
2009
102 Titan 7 February 960  Details 
106 Titan 27 March 960  Details 
108 Titan 3 April 4150  Details 
109 Titan 20 April 3600  Details 
110 Titan 5 May 3244  Details 
111 Titan 21 May 965  Details 
112 Titan 6 June 965  Details 
113 Titan 22 June 955  Details 
114 Titan 8 July 965
115 Titan 24 July 955
116 Titan 9 August 970
117 Titan 25 August 970
119 Titan 12 October 1300
120 Enceladus 2 November 103
121 Enceladus 20 November 1603
122 Titan 11 December 4850
123 Titan 28 December 955
2010
124 Titan 12 January 1073
125 Titan 28 January 7490
127 Rhea 2 March 101
127 Helene 3 March 1823
129 Titan 5 April 7462
129 Dione 6 April 503
130 Enceladus 27 April 99
131 Enceladus 18 May 198
131 Titan 19 May 1400
132 Titan 4 June 2044
133 Titan 20 June 955

* The encounter date refers to the date of closest approach in UTC


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Last Update: 29 Jan 2010
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RELATED LINKS
NASA Cassini website
SEE ALSO
Cassini Tour - Prime Mission
 
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