The NASA Cassini spacecraft and its European Space Agency Huygens piggyback probe are now back on schedule for a launch to Saturn from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 6 October. The Titan-Centaur launch had been threatened by a propellant leak in the Centaur upper stage. The Cassini will become the first spacecraft to enter orbit around Saturn, while the Huygens will be used to land an instrumented craft on to the surface of the Saturnian moon, Titan. The dual spacecraft will take more than six years to reach the ringed planet after its launch, making a journey across the solar system via two gravity-assisted fly-bys of Venus and one of the Earth during 1998/9.
Source: Flight International
