At 3 p.m. EDT Tuesday, April 4 NASA will hold a news conference at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to preview the beginning of Cassini’s final mission segment, known as the Grand Finale. The briefing will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
Cassini has been orbiting Saturn since June 2004, studying the planet, its rings and its moons. A final close flyby of Saturn’s moon Titan on April 22 will reshape the Cassini spacecraft’s orbit so that it begins its final series of 22 weekly dives through the unexplored gap between the planet and its rings. The first of these dives is planned for April 26. Following these closer-than-ever encounters with the giant planet, Cassini will make a mission-ending plunge into Saturn’s upper atmosphere on September 15.
The panelists for the briefing are:
- Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the agency’s headquarters in Washington
- Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at JPL
- Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at JPL
- Joan Stupik, Cassini guidance and control engineer at JPL
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