NASA'S CASSINI MISSION RECEIVES SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM'S HIGHEST HONOR

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:
WASHINGTON -- The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum has
bestowed its highest group honor, the Trophy for Current Achievement,
on NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn. The annual award recognizes
outstanding achievements in the fields of aerospace science and
technology.

The trophy was presented Wednesday during an evening ceremony at the
museum in Washington. Established in 1985, the award has been
presented to seven NASA planetary mission teams.

"This joint mission has produced an unprecedented science return,"
said William Knopf, Cassini program executive at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. "Missions like Cassini pave the way for future robotic
and human exploration throughout our solar system and beyond."

Launched in 1997, the Cassini spacecraft entered Saturn's orbit in
June 2004 with the European Space Agency's (ESA) Huygens probe bolted
to its side. In December 2004, the spacecraft successfully released
Huygens, which entered the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon Titan.
Cassini completed its prime mission in 2008 and has been extended
twice. It is now in its so-called solstice mission, which will enable
scientists to observe seasonal changes in Saturn and its moons during
the planet's northern summer solstice. The mission will last through
September 2017.

"We look forward to sailing around the Saturn system for several more
years to see how our views of the planet and its magnificent moons
change as we get into northern summer solstice," said Robert
Mitchell, the Cassini program manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., who accepted the award on
behalf of the team.

The Cassini spacecraft carries 12 science instruments and
investigations, with an additional six aboard Huygens. Cassini
mission highlights to date include the discovery of four new moons
and two new rings around Saturn. Cassini observed spraying water
vapor and icy particle jets from the moon Enceladus. In Saturn's
northern hemisphere, the spacecraft watched the evolution of a
monster storm, a sign of seasonal change from northern winter into
northern spring.

Cassini and Huygens also revealed new characteristics about Titan, the
only body in the solar system other than Earth with stable liquid on
its surface.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and
the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the mission for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two
onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL.