Cassini Weekly Significant Events for 12/27/01 – 01/02/02

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone
tracking station on Wednesday,
January 2. The Cassini spacecraft is in an
excellent state of health and is operating normally. "Present Position"

web page, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/ .

Recent instrument activities include two Radio and Plasma Wave Science
High Frequency Receiver
calibrations. Engineering activities taking place onboard the spacecraft
this week include an Attitude Control
Subsystem (ACS) high-water mark clear.

Execution of C29 continues normally with the ongoing Gravitational Wave
Experiment, of which 37 days out
of 40 days have been completed. Spacecraft health remains excellent,
maintaining a quiet spacecraft on
RWA control. Instruments remain quiet as well with MAPS data being
collected and downlinked.

On Dec. 29, continuous DSN coverage in place for the GWE was interrupted
by a predicted lunar
occultation lasting 1 hour and 24 minutes. All ground operations for
loss and re-acquisition of signal after the
occultation proceeded normally.

Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and
the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of
the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the
Cassini
mission for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.