Stock Photo - 07/02/1997 ___ Jet Propulsion Laboratory JPL technicians clean and prepare the upper equipment module for mating with the propulsion module subsystem of the Cassini orbiter in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at KSC in July. A four_ year, close_up study of the Saturnian system, the Cassini mission is scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Station in October 1997. It will take seven years for the spacecraft to reach Saturn. Scientific instruments carried aboard the spacecraft will study Saturn’s atmosphere, magnetic field, rings, and several moons. JPL is managing the Cassini project for NASA