Significant Event Report for Week Ending 1/8/1999

Cassini Significant Event Report

For Week Ending 01/08/99

Spacecraft Status:

The most recent spacecraft status is from the DSN tracking pass on
Wednesday, 01/06, over the Goldstone tracking station. The Cassini
spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is executing the Cruise
11 sequence normally. The speed of the spacecraft can be viewed on the "Where is Cassini Now?" web page (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm)

Spacecraft Activity Summary:

Instrument Checkout (ICO) has been the primary activity over the past
week, with the following activities completed:

On Wednesday, 12/30, RPWS (radio and plasma wave science subsystem), MAG
(magnetometer), and SCAS (science calibration subsystem) checkouts, all
nominal.

On Thursday, 12/31, Completion of MAG checkout, CDA (cosmic dust analyzer
subsystem) checkout, RPWS IEB (instrument expanded block) exercise, all
nominal, with CDA analysis continuing.

On Friday, 01/01, Completion of RPWS IEB exercise, successful.

On Saturday, 01/02, RSS (radio science subsystem) Test F, opposition,
start of the MIMI (magnetospheric imaging instrument subsystem) checkout,
all successful, MIMI analysis continues.

On Sunday, 01/03, MIMI checkout continues, start CAPS (Cassini plasma
spectrometer subsystem) checkout, all nominal.

On Monday, 01/04, MIMI Checkout continues, CAPS Checkout continues, INMS
(ion and neutral mass spectrometer subsystem) power ON, all successful.

On Tuesday, 01/05, MIMI checkout concludes, CAPS checkout continues, INMS
checkout began but terminated before completion due to some data
corruption, analysis continues.

On Wednesday, 01/06, CAPS checkout concludes, RSS test "D" completes, all
successful

Upcoming events:

The events planned for the next reporting period consist of a continuation
of ICO activities. Checkouts are planned for UVIS (ultraviolet imaging
spectrograph subsystem), CIRS (composite infrared spectrometer subsystem),
ISS (imaging science subsystem) and VIMS (visible and infrared mapping
spectrometer subsystem). CAPS, MIMI, RPWS, INMS and RSS will be performing
additional planned tests.

Additional information about Cassini-Huygens is online at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Cassini will begin orbiting Saturn on July 1, 2004, and release its piggybacked Huygens probe about six months later for descent through the thick atmosphere of the moon Titan. Cassini-Huygens is a cooperative mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.

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