Re: [Utah-astronomy] Cassini looking good

Too, it's a heavy spacecraft, over 4,000 lbs IIRC, and has been whipped-up to nearly solar escape velocity via multiple gravitational assists. A final speed-up as it entered Saturn's gravitational influence, and this thing was really moving. A long burn even with a reasonably muscular engine seems not out of the ordinary. And the orbital trajectory...4 years and only about 6 dozen total orbits! --- Michael Carnes <moogiebird@earthlink.net> wrote:

I was really surprised at the 90-minute burn. That must be a very low-thrust engine.

__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail