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Cassini Booster Cleared for Launch
The Titan 4B Centaur booster that will launch the Cassini mission to Saturn in October has been cleared for launch after repairs to correct leaks detected in the booster in August.
![[image of Cassini rollout to pad]](../9709/images2/casrollout.jpg)
A "terminal countdown demonstration" of the rocket on August 20 turned up no sign of leaks that had been found in a test August 5. In the earlier tests leaks of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen were reported in the Centaur upper stage of the booster.
"The success of the Titan test today keeps the launch of Cassini on target for October 6," said Richard Spehalski, Cassini program manager. "The processing of the spacecraft here at KSC has gone well and we are also on schedule."
Work on the spacecraft was wrapped up in August as well. During an August 22 ceremony project officials affixed to the side of the spacecraft a digital versatile disk (DVD) which contains more than 600,000 signatures collected from members of the general public around the world.
"We received signatures from individuals young and old, from whole families, hundreds of classes of students and whole schools," said Charley Kohlhase, Cassini's science and mission design manager.
Cassini was shipped out to the Titan IV launch pad on August 28 and mated to the booster. Launch of the mission is scheduled for October 6, which would result in a July 2004 arrival at Saturn.