[Thursday, July 01, 2004] After becoming the first spacecraft to enter Saturn's orbit, Cassini sent back this image of a portion of the planet's rings. It was taken by the spacecraft's narrow angle camera and shows the sunlit side of the rings.

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[Thursday, July 01, 2004] At 9:12 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, flight controllers received confirmation that Cassini had completed the engine burn needed to place the spacecraft into the correct orbit around Saturn.

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[Thursday, July 01, 2004] After becoming the first spacecraft to enter Saturn's orbit, Cassini sent back these images of Saturn's rings.

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[Friday, July 02, 2004] Traveling at a speed of over 20 km/sec kilometers per second, the spacecraft was reoriented for a 96-minute main engine burn. This slowed the spacecraft by 626 meters per second and allowed it to be captured by the gravitational pull of Saturn.

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[Friday, July 02, 2004] Like the mysterious dark markings on Mars that once haunted astronomer Percival Lowell, shadowy features and mysterious markings appear to stain the surface of puzzling Titan.

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[Friday, July 02, 2004] This image was taken on July 02, 2004 and received on Earth July 02, 2004. The camera was pointing toward TITAN at approximately 339,001 kilometers away, and the image was taken using the IRP0 and CB3 filters.

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[Saturday, July 03, 2004] Despite the views of the surface of Titan provided by the Cassini spacecraft, the moon remains inscrutable to the human eye. Images taken with the narrow angle camera using red, green and blue color filters were combined to create this view.

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[Saturday, July 03, 2004] This movie of Saturn's southern hemisphere taken by the Cassini spacecraft cameras shows a banded appearance due to winds, as well as dark cyclonic ovals.

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[Saturday, July 03, 2004] The Cassini spacecraft has revealed surface details of Saturn's moon Titan and imaged a huge cloud of gas surrounding the planet-sized moon. Cassini gathered data before and during a distant flyby of the orange moon yesterday.

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[Sunday, July 04, 2004] Piercing the ubiquitous layer of smog enshrouding Titan, these images from the Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer reveals an exotic surface covered with a variety of materials in the southern hemisphere.

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[Sunday, July 04, 2004] This image of Saturn's moon Rhea was taken on July 02, 2004 and received on Earth July 03, 2004. The camera was pointing toward Rhea at approximately 987,931 kilometers away, and the image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters.

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[Sunday, July 04, 2004] This image of Saturn's moon Iapetus was taken on July 03, 2004 and received on Earth July 03, 2004. The camera was pointing toward Iapetus at approximately 2,966,991 kilometers away, and the image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters.

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[Sunday, July 04, 2004] Evidence from the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer on the Cassini spacecraft indicates that the grain sizes in Saturn's rings grade from smaller to larger, related to distance from Saturn.

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[Sunday, July 04, 2004] The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer on Cassini has found evidence for a material dubbed "dirt" in Saturn's rings. Some type of sorting mechanism is concentrating this unidentified material in the gaps between the rings.

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[Monday, July 05, 2004] Shown here is a mosaic of Titan's south polar region acquired as Cassini passed by at a range of 339,000 kilometers (210,600 miles) on July 2. These images were acquired through special filters designed to see through the thick haze and atmosphere.

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[Wednesday, July 07, 2004] The best view ever of Saturn's rings in the ultraviolet indicates there is more ice toward the outer part of the rings, hinting at ring origin and evolution, say two University of Colorado at Boulder researchers involved in the Cassini mission.

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[Friday, July 09, 2004] On-board activities this week included the successful completion of the Saturn Orbit Insertion Critical Sequence, playback of all SOI telemetry and science data, and Cassini's first Titan flyby.

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[Saturday, July 10, 2004] When the Cassini spacecraft launched into space nearly seven years ago, its destination - Saturn - appeared as a speck in a sea of stars. More than a billion miles later, Cassini has at last arrived.

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[Monday, July 12, 2004] Cassini emerged from behind the Sun after being in solar conjunction since July 5. The most recent telemetry was acquired from the Deep Space Network's Goldstone tracking station today. The spacecraft is in excellent health and operating normally.

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[Wednesday, July 14, 2004] The moon Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is visible just below and to the right of Saturn's South Pole.

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[Wednesday, July 14, 2004] The moon Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across) is visible just below and to the right of Saturn's South Pole.

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[Thursday, July 15, 2004] One hemisphere of the moon is very dark, while the other is very bright. Scientists do not yet know the origin of the dark material or whether or not it is representative of the interior of Iapetus.

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[Friday, July 16, 2004] Cassini exited the Solar Conjunction period this week. Telecommunications performance was limited as expected due to the position of the Sun between the spacecraft and Earth.

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[Friday, July 16, 2004] On the way to its final destination, Titan, ESA's Huygens atmospheric probe underwent an important health check-up yesterday.

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[Thursday, July 22, 2004] With shimmering pinks, hues of gray and a hint of brown, a newly released image of Saturn's rings resembles a fresco where nature is the painter.

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[Friday, July 23, 2004] The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, July 21. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally.

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[Monday, July 26, 2004] Like a half-full moon, cratered Tethys hangs before the Cassini spacecraft in this narrow angle camera view taken on July 3, 2004.

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[Monday, July 26, 2004] With a diameter of 1,528 kilometers (950 miles) across, Rhea is Saturn's second largest moon. The Voyager spacecraft found that like Dione, Rhea has one of its hemispheres covered with bright, wispy streaks which may be water frost.

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[Monday, July 26, 2004] Reflecting greater than 90 percent of the incidental sunlight, this moon was the source of much surprise during the Voyager era.

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[Monday, July 26, 2004] Soon after orbital insertion, Cassini returned its best look yet at the heavily cratered moon Mimas. The enormous crater at the top of this image, named Herschel, is about 130 kilometers (80 miles) wide and 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep.

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[Friday, July 30, 2004] This UV view of Titan has been falsely colored. The main body is colored pale orange as seen in true color images. Above the orange disc are two layers of atmospheric haze that have been brightened and falsely colored violet to enhance visibility.

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[Friday, July 30, 2004] The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Madrid tracking station on Wednesday, July 28. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally.

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[Saturday, July 31, 2004] Following its first flyby of Titan, Cassini gazed back at the moon's receding crescent. This natural color view was seen by the spacecraft about one day after closest approach. The slight bluish glow of Titan's haze is visible along the limb.

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[Saturday, July 31, 2004] A day after entering orbit around Saturn, Cassini sped silently past Titan, imaging the moon's south polar region. This natural color image represents Cassini's view only about two hours after closest approach to the moon.

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[Saturday, July 31, 2004] The dark shadow of Saturn's southern hemisphere spreads across the planet's rings all the way to the Encke gap. Close inspection of the shadow's left-most extension reveals the penumbra, the region in which ring features are only partially illuminated.

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