MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109  TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

                   Cassini Mission Status
                      January 8, 1998

     Having clocked in more than 200 million kilometers (124 million 
miles) since launch last Oct. 15, the  Cassini spacecraft remains in 
excellent health as it progresses on its long flight path to Saturn.  

     The Cassini flight team has nearly completed all scheduled spacecraft 
configuration activities for the mission's early phase.  Onboard 
software stored in the command data subsystem has been directing 
spacecraft activities as scheduled. The spacecraft's attitude in 
space is being maintained using the spacecraft's small hydrazine 
thrusters.  For the first 14 months of flight, Cassini will fly so 
that its 4-meter-diameter (13-foot) high-gain antenna always faces 
the Sun, shading most of the spacecraft from the more intense 
sunlight that characterizes the inner solar system.  Throughout this 
period, spacecraft communications are conducted through one of 
Cassini's two low-gain antennas; the antenna selected depends on the 
relative geometry of the Sun, Earth and spacecraft.  

     In December and through January and beyond, periodic instrument 
maintenance and health checks, along with other routine spacecraft 
"housekeeping" activities, dominate Cassini's schedule.  Cassini 
spacecraft operations and science team personnel continue to develop 
software command "loads" that will direct spacecraft activities and 
scientific instrument observations later in the mission.   

     Today Cassini is traveling at a speed of more than 109,200 kilometers 
per hour (67,800 miles per hour) and is more than 22,450,000 
kilometers (13,950,000 miles) from Earth.  It is 27,500,000 
kilometers (17,088,000 miles) from Venus, where the spacecraft will 
perform its first gravity-assist maneuver on April 26.  As the 
spacecraft swings around Venus, the planet's gravity will boost 
Cassini's speed for the next phase of the journey to Saturn.  

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