The most recent spacecraft telemetry data was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Monday, 04/24. 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://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/today/" )
 
Activities this week included a CDA decontamination heater activity, and a playback of the Radio Science Subsystem (RSS) High Gain Antenna (HGA) pattern calibration activity.  This event executed successfully and RSS reported that everything went well for both the X-band and Ka-band calibrations. Additional activities included an RSS Ultra Stable Oscillator (USO) characterization and HGA boresight calibration, change from Reaction Wheel (RWA) to Reaction Control Subsystem (RCS) control mode, and Periodic Instrument Maintenance.  After the maintenance activity, the RPWS, MAG, and CDA instruments powered on and loaded flight software and instrument expanded blocks (IEBs).
 
This week Cassini passed by the orbit of Comet Wild 2 (pronounced Vild). As meteor streams may be associated with the orbits of comets it was hoped that the Radio and Plasma Wave Science Subsystem (RPWS) instrument on board Cassini would detect an increase in micrograin hits.  The instrument team is still analyzing data from the pertinent time frame. The CDA instrument team reports no particle hits during the portion of this period when their instrument was turned on.
 
All ten of the new Ops SOPCs have been checked out and configured and are ready for shipping to the remote science team sites.
 
A DTF-21 data flow test was conducted which tested two CDS Version 7 flight software data modes which will be patched into CDS Version 5 on board the spacecraft for use in C19 and C20.  The official test report is pending but the initial results indicate that the test was successful.
 
The kick-off meeting for the Cruise 21 sequence was held Monday, 4/24.
 
The Discovery channel is planning a special on moons in the solar system. Cassini personnel have been asked to provide input on Saturn’s moons and moon-ring interactions for this episode
 
Cassini Outreach
Cassini Mission to Saturn and Titan
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
National Aeronautics and Space Administration