The Cassini spacecraft zipped within 176 miles of Venus early Sunday, using the planet's gravity to tack another 16,300 miles per hour to its velocity for its journey to Saturn. Cassini is on a seven-year, 2.2 billion-mile trip to explore Saturn. "All indications are that the spacecraft did exactly what we expected," said Ronald Draper, deputy program manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena on Sunday, according to the Associated Press.
Venus Flyby
The Cassini spacecraft zipped within 176 miles of Venus early Sunday, using the planet's gravity to tack another 16,300 miles per hour to its velocity for its journey to Saturn. Cassini is on a seven-year, 2.2 billion-mile trip to explore Saturn. "All indications are that the spacecraft did exactly what we expected," said Ronald Draper, deputy program manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena on Sunday, according to the Associated Press.
