Cassini-Huygens Spacecraft

The Cassini-Huygens Spacecraft was a US planetary probe launched in 1997 to explore Saturn, its rings, and its moons. The mission was a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), each contributing to the development of its instruments. The spacecraft had two parts: Cassini, the main orbiter named after Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, and the Huygens atmospheric probe, named after Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens. NASA's center in Pasadena managed the ground monitoring of radio signals from the probe. These signals were initially used to study Earth's atmosphere and ionosphere, and later investigate Saturn’s gravitational field and its moons. During Cassini's journey and its initial orbit around Saturn, the Huygens probe remained attached to the spacecraft. Designed to explore Saturn's moon, Titan, Huygens separated from Cassini on December 25, 2004, and successfully landed on Titan on January 14, 2005, using a parachute system. This marked the first landing in the outer Solar System and the first on a moon other than Earth's. Cassini's primary mission, originally planned for four years (June 2004 to May 2008), was extended twice, finally concluding on September 15, 2017, when Cassini was deliberately de-orbited into Saturn's atmosphere, where it burned up. In its final phase, the "Grand Finale", Cassini performed a series of close passes between Saturn and its inner rings, gathering valuable data before its mission ended. Although Cassini’s mission is over, the wealth of data collected will continue to be analyzed for many years.