What I cannot understand is that if the mechanics of the obital path of Cassini and the launch and descent of Huygens were so far off that calculated by NASA/ESA then I'm sure that very fact would overshadow the landing mission and get commented on by every astronomer in the world. If Newton and Einstein were so wrong then it would send shockwaves reverberating thoughout the scientific community. That sort of deal is impossible to keep quiet. The plain fact is everything went as planned

In truth, the mission was a huge success, it's landing site and timing were well within the predicted ranges. Huygens landed softly, has provided remarkable images, sound recordings and radar data and, as soon as it's been analysed and can be publically released, atmospheric and ground data will follow.

ESA made a bit of a PR mess and unfortunately a computer programer had a senior moment and has egg on his face because a vital comand was missed and a com channel lost as a consequence. Aparently we are missing some images. Because of built in mission redundancy no real harm has been done and we now have a 360 degree panorama of the landing taken during descent as well as a series of stills taken at ground level of the local terrain.

Be patient, all the data will come especially any unexpected anomalies and the interpretation of that data. There is no kudos in keeping things quiet and it won't, can't, happen.

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