spacetoday.net: Cassini mission extended

Posted: Wed, Apr 16, 2008, 7:52 AM ET (1152 GMT)
Cassini flyby of Enceladus illustration (NASA)

NASA announced Tuesday that it has extended the Cassini mission to Saturn by two years, allowing dozens of additional flybys of several of the planet's exotic moons. The four-year primary mission of the spacecraft was set to end in July 2008, but with the spacecraft still in good health the space agency decided to extend the mission two more years. The extension covers 26 additional flybys of Titan, the planet's largest moon, as well as several of Enceladus and three other moons; studies of the planet itself, its rings, and magnetosphere are also planned for the extended mission. Mission managers said that three instruments have "minor ailments" but continue to return science, and that the spacecraft will have enough propellant at the end of this extended mission to possibly permit yet another extension.