HISTORY: For anyone interested in pieces of local history, there are a couple of television debuts they may not want to miss.
Zippo Manufacturing Co.-sponsored documentary “A Time to Heal” will air at 8 p.m. today on WPSU, and the Potter County Courthouse will be featured on the “Historic Courthouses” series at 7 p.m. today on the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN).
“A Time to Heal” is a 60-minute Vietnam War documentary by Lindsey Whissel Fenton.
It focuses on Pennsylvania’s role during the war and was created in conjunction with the national story told in Ken Burn’s Vietnam War documentary.
“Historic Courthouses” is a 30-minute program. Hosting the episode are Potter County Historical Society President David Castano and Potter County Commissioner Paul Heimel.
CASSINI: A NASA spacecraft will go where no earthly craft has gone before on Friday morning.
The Cassini spacecraft will begin “its 13-year-tour of the Saturn system with an intentional plunge into the planet,” the agency stated. This is the closest we’ve been to the planet.
The reason for the plunge, according to NASA, is “to ensure Saturn’s moons — in particular Enceladus, with its subsurface ocean and signs of hydrothermal activity — remain pristine for future exploration.”
NASA predicts it will lose contact with Cassini at 7:55 a.m. Friday, about one minute after it enters Saturn’s atmosphere.
“The final plunge will take place on the day side of Saturn, near local noon, with the spacecraft entering the atmosphere around 10 degrees north latitude,” the agency stated.
NASA Television will show live mission commentary and video from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Mission Control from 7 to 8:30 a.m. Friday. A post-mission briefing from JPL is scheduled for 9:30 a.m.
“The spacecraft’s final signal will be like an echo. It will radiate across the solar system for nearly an hour and a half after Cassini itself has gone,” said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at JPL in Pasadena, Calif.
It takes 86 minutes for the signal from Cassini to reach Earth.
