Cassini probe an early success!

Man, I love this stuff. Why can't we put aside our various wars and greed and get more things like this done? We don't live anywhere near long enough to waste time as we so often do.

Anyway, images and other data will be available here once the data issues get sorted out. News from the ESA indicates the basic mechanics of the mission were a success.

The big question is the integrety of the data. The initial design forgot to account for the doppler effect on the transmission. There is still a real chance of the data shifting outside the antennas optimal bandwidth however. Let's hope those subsystems are overengineered as well as the probe itself was.

(Crossing fingers)

Good for the Eurpoeans. After the loss of Beagle, this success must feel pretty good.

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Edit: minor bonehead content removed