October 26, 2004 - Launched from Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 15, 1997, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft reached the Saturnian region in July 2004 and began transmitting spectacular imagery of Jupiter and its rings. An amazing feat considering Saturn is 826 million miles from earth. Most recent imagery of the Cassini-Huygens Titan-A Flyby occurred on Oct. 26, 2004. Imagery from the ISS and other instrumentation will help scientists determine the make-up of Saturn and its moons.

Fairchild Imaging designed and developed the focal plane arrays for the Cassini’s Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) wide angle and narrow angle cameras as well as the FPA for the Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) and the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) on the Huygens probe. These space-qualified CCDs are a critical component in each of the cameras. The Fairchild Imaging CCDs on the ISS are space-qualified detectors with 1024 x 1024, 12 µm pixels. These full frame CCDs are coated with lumogen to improve UV sensitivity. Those on the VIMS and the DISR are 512 x 256 frame-transfer CCDs coated with lumogen and spectral order sorting filters.

To learn more about the Cassini mission please refer to: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/index.cfm

For more information, contact William Walker, VP-Sales and Marketing, at Fairchild Imaging, 1801 McCarthy Blvd., Milpitas, CA 95035, 408-433-2534, William.walker@fcimg.com, Fairchild Imaging.

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About Fairchild Imaging
Fairchild Imaging is a manufacturer and developer of electronic imaging components and systems. Located in Milpitas, CA, Fairchild Imaging is a privately held corporation whose major investors include The Carlyle Group, BAE Systems, and management. Information about Fairchild Imaging is available on the worldwide Web at www.fairchildimaging.com.