Reply #21: The fly-by distance was increased twice [View All]

[bananas]

I'll see if I can find an reference as to why.
My recollection is that it was to reduce the risk of an accident.


On June 24th, 1999 Cassini did another flyby of Venus, then it headed BACK TOWARDS EARTH for a flyby of this planet at just 312 miles above the Earth (June 1995 NASA EIS. In the June 1997 FSEIS the figure was raised to 496 miles above the surface of the Earth. They raised it again and again in a phoney attempt to look like they have listened to our pleas. It is a ruse! (It ended up about 725 miles away when it actually did the flyby.)

http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/index.htm