Spaceflight Now



Spaceflight Now +



Premium video content for our Spaceflight Now Plus subscribers.

Station status report
International Space Station program officials hold a status briefing Dec. 9 on the progress of Expedition 10. They discussed the food supply concerns and many other topics. (52min 53sec file)
 Play video

John Young tribute
A gala at the National Air and Space Museum pays tribute to retiring space pioneer John Young. America's most experienced astronaut is leaving NASA this month after an extraordinary 42-year career. (1hr 24min file)
 Low | High bandwidth

Shuttle program update
Space shuttle program manager Bill Parsons, deputy program manager Wayne Hale and integration manager John Casper hold a news conference in Houston on Monday to provide an update on Return to Flight work. (61min 35sec file)
 Play video

Shuttle work
This collection of footage illustrates activities underway throughout NASA on the external tank, orbiter in-flight inspection techniques and pre-launch processing work at the Cape. (9min 05sec file)
 Play video

Become a subscriber
More video



Cassini shows moon's influence at ringed Saturn
CASSINI PHOTO RELEASE
Posted: December 30, 2004

Mimas orbits beyond the outer fringes of Saturn's main rings, perturbing the orbits of ring particles and creating gaps like the Huygens Gap within the Cassini Division (the wide, dark gap near lower left). The outer edge of the B ring (lower left corner) and the thin, outermost section of the A ring appear notably brighter than the bulk of the A ring, suggesting differences in ring particle density or composition. Small knots in the thin F ring are visible at lower right. Mimas is 398 kilometers (247 miles) across.


Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Download larger image version here

 
This view is from Cassini's vantage point beneath the ring plane. The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Nov. 18, 2004, at a distance of approximately 4.7 million kilometers (2.9 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 27 kilometers (17 miles) per pixel. Contrast was enhanced to aid visibility.

The Cassini-Huygens mission 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, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.