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Many past and present team members gathered in June 2017 for this group shot at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Full Image and Caption ›

The Cassini program is an international cooperative effort involving NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), as well as several separate European academic and industrial contributors. The Cassini partnership represents an undertaking whose scope and cost could not likely be borne by any single nation, and is made possible through shared investment and participation.

Through the mission, about 260 scientists from 17 countries hope to gain a better understanding of the Saturn, its rings, moons and magnetosphere.

In the United States, the mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. At JPL, Earl Maize is the Cassini program manager. Linda J. Spilker is the Cassini project scientist and Scott. G. Edgington is the deputy project scientist.

At NASA Headquarters, Bill Knopf is Cassini program executive and Curt Niebur is Cassini program scientist.

The major U.S. contractor is Lockheed Martin, whose contributions include the launch vehicle and upper stage, spacecraft propulsion module and the radioisotope thermoelectric generators.

Development of the Huygens Titan probe was managed by the European Space Technology and Research Center. The center's prime contractor, Aerospatiale (now Alcatel) in Cannes, France, assembled the probe with equipment supplied by many European countries. Huygens' batteries and two scientific instruments came from the United States.

At ESA, Nicolas Altobelli is the project scientist. At ASI, Enrico Flamini is the project manager for Cassini's radio antenna and other contributions to the spacecraft.

The U.S. Department of Energy provided Cassini's radioisotope thermoelectric generators.


Cassini/Huygens XXM Program Organization

Thousands of people worked to build and launch Cassini and carry it through its long mission from 1997 to present. The following people work on the current operations team.

Program Manager

Earl Maize

Project Scientist

Linda J. Spilker

Deputy Project Scientist

Scott. G. Edgington

European Space Agency Project Scientist

Nicolas Altobelli

Italian Space Agency (ASI) Representative

Enrico Flamini


Resource Management: Patricia Ramirez

M. Caranza and J. Rowley

Deep Space Network Mission Interface Manager: Stefan Waldherr

Program Outreach: Alice Wessen

Phil Davis, Bill Dunford, Enrico Piazza, Jay R. Thompson and Rachel Zimmerman-Brachman.

Mission Assurance: Nazilla Rouse

Science Communication Coordination: Preston Dyches

Mission Planning: Erick J. Sturm II

M. Bittner and D. Seal

Real Time Operations: David Doody

G. Eller, S. Hilabrand, W. Hoffman, W. Mogensen, M. Orr, M. Staab and A Vaughs

System Engineering / CM: Julia Henricks and Luis Morales

S. Payan and S. Chatterjee

Administrative Services: Carmen Vetter

R. Austin, K. Chan, N. Knadzhyan, M. Martin, M. Weisenfelder and V. Villa

Downlink Ground System and SA: Tammy Fujii

M. Arias, O. Castillo, C. Crodel, E. Gillingham, C. Lush, A. Mirabel, N. Patel, G. Razo and R. Sumagaysay


Spacecraft Operations Office

Julie L. Webster

Propulsion: Todd Barber

C. Garner and A. Mitchell

Telecom: A. Thomas

J. Shell

Power: Jonathan Grandidier

Thermal Devices: William Ledeboer

B. Marshall

Command & Data Subsystem: P. Morgan

S. Adamiak, D. Beach and L. Tatge

Integrated Test Lab: K. Baldaruddin

J. Hernandez, C. Huynh and C. Sagoian

Systems: L. Burke

M. Bittner, J. Glibert, C. Kirby, M. Mizukami and K. Naviaux

Attitude Control: T. Burk

L. Andrade, D. Bates, T. Brown, A. Lee, C. Lee, F. Rizvi, J. Stupik, T. Sung and E. Wang


Navigation Team

Duane Roth

Maneuver & Trajectory: Y. Hahn

S. Hernandez-Doran, F. Laipert, P. Valerino, M. Vaquero, S. Wagner and M. Wong

Orbit Determination: Julie Bellerose

D. Boone, K. Criddle, R. Ionasecu, R. Jacobson, K. Kelleher, W. Owen and Z. Tarzi

Software Development: I. Roundhill

System Administration: R. Beswick


Science & Uplink Office

Kathryn Weld

Project Science and System Engineering: Nora Alonge and Morgan Cable (Asst.)

Mission Sequencing Subsystem Team: Diane Conner and David Tong (Deputy)

J. Boyer, J. Castello, S. Fleischer, U. Guduri, W. Kaye, S. Payan and S. Petrosian

Science Planning & Sequencing Team: William Heventhal and Trina Ray (Deputy)

SIP Leads: J. Berkeley, R. Boehmer, S. Boll, S. Brooks, K. Cloutier, E. Eelkema-Stough, S. Goo, K. Kelleher, E. Kowalski, J. Pitesky, K Uchida and N. Vandermey

Investigation Scientists: A. Anabtawi (RSS IS), B. Buratti (VIMS IS), M. Burton (MAPS IS), S. Edginton (CIRS IS), R. Lopes (RADAR IS) and S. Brooks (UVIS IS)

Science Integration Engineers: J. Berkeley (TOST), R. Boehmer (TOST), S. Boll (Saturn), S. Brooks (Rings), B. Buratti (SOST), M. Burton (TOST, MAPS), K. Cloutier (Saturn), S. Goo (Maps, XD), K. Kelleher (MAPS), E. Kowalski (XD), K. Mitchell (TOST), S. Perl (MAG), K. Perry (XD, Rings), J. Pitesky (TOST), T. Ray (TOST), M. Roy (TOST), N. Vandermey (SOST, Rings, MAPS) and B. Wallis (Rings)

Deep Space Network Schedulers: R. Espinueva and K. Yetter

Instrument Operations Team: Luis Morales

Task Managers: C. Acton (NAIF/SPICE), A Anabtawi (RSS) and Y. Anderson (RADAR)

System Engineers: P. Andres (GDS) and J. Henricks (O/MPL)

MIPL Support: S. Chattergee (MIPL Test), G. Earle (SA), P. Lee (I&T), C. To (I&T, ISS, VIMS, DBA, PE-1, DBA ISS Reconcill), L. Ly-Hollins (R/TOPS), F. Loaiza (Linux DBA), B. Stromberg (HW Engineer) and A. Tinio (MIPL, DBA).

Ops Engineers: A. Anabtawi (RSS), Y. Anderson (RADAR), P. Andres (DOC), E. Barbins (RSS), H. Breneman (ISS, SI, VIMS), D. Buccino (RSS), J. Gerhard (ISS, VIMS), G. Hamilton (RADAR), V. Hammerle (ISS/VIMS), J. Henricks (B/U, DOC), D. Kahan (RSS), K. Kelleher (RADAR, PDT Designer), S. Kwan (DOC), F. Loaiza (ISS, VIMS), L. Ly-Hollins (SI, ISS), M. Roy (CDA), A. Rinion (EK. CATS, NAIRSPICE), C. Veeramachaneni (RADAR), R. West (RADAR) and J. Yoshimizu (ISS/VIMS)

Program Science Archive: S. Chatterjee


Cassini Participating Scientists (by selection year)

2011

Alberto Adriani, Carrie Anderson, Jason Barnes, Gianrico Filacchione, Matthew Hedman (also 2014), Brigette Hesman (also 2014), Carly Howett, Ozgur Karatekin, Panayotis Lavvas, Carol Paty, Paul Schenk, Jason Soderblom (also 2014)

2012

Caitlin Griffith, Alex Hayes (also 2014), Henrik Melin, Francis Nimmo, Christopher Parkinson, Mark Perry, Joseph Spitale (also 2014), Matthew Tiscareno (also 2015), Ann Verbiscer

2013

Tilmann Denk, Tommi Koskinen, Giuseppe Mitri, (Gerald) Wesley Patterson, Darci Snowden, Federico Tosi, Veronique Vuitton

2014

Sarah Badman, Has Cao, Carolyn Ernst, Alex Hayes (also 2012), Matthew Hedman (also 2011), Brigette Hesman (also 2011), Liming Li, Jason Soderblom (also 2011), Joseph Spitale (also 2012)

2015

Luke Moore, Matthew Tiscareno (also 2012), Hsiang-Wen (Sean) Hsu, Jonathan Fortney


Also see: Meet the team at the European Space Agency Cassini-Huygens site.

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