Cassini craft enters orbit around Saturn

PASADENA, Calif. — The international Cassini spacecraft threaded a gap between two of Saturn’s dazzling rings late Wednesday and entered orbit around the giant planet, completing one of the mission’s most critical maneuvers more than 900 million miles from Earth.

Mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory erupted in cheers shortly before 9 p.m. PDT when a radio signal indicated Cassini had been captured by Saturn.

“It was kind of a nail-biter throughout but what you saw here was the result of a lot of work on the part of a lot of people and it all paid off just perfect,” said Robert Mitchell, the Cassini program manager at JPL.

Propulsion engineer and mission commentator Todd Barber said the announcement came earlier than predicted because the signal had been tracked so well.

“We have burn complete,” Barber announced later when the spacecraft’s rocket stopped firing, apparently within one second of the predicted 9:12 p.m. time.

The maneuver, which brought Cassini within 12,500 miles of Saturn’s cloud tops, came after two decades of work by scientists in 18 nations.

The craft could have simply flown past Saturn if the burn failed to brake its acceleration properly.