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During planning for its extended missions, various future plans for Cassini were evaluated on the basis of scientific value, cost, and time. [3] [7] Some of the options examined included collision with Saturn atmosphere, an icy satellite, or rings; another was departure from Saturn orbit to Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, or a centaur.
Cassini 's end involved a series of close Saturn passes, approaching within the rings, then an entry into Saturn's atmosphere on September 15, 2017, to destroy the spacecraft. [ 6 ] [ 12 ] [ 88 ] This method was chosen to ensure protection and prevent biological contamination to any of the moons of Saturn thought to offer potential habitability .
View of Saturn from Cassini, taken in March 2004, shortly before the spacecraft's orbital insertion in July 2004. This article provides a timeline of the Cassini–Huygens mission (commonly called Cassini). Cassini was a collaboration between the United States' NASA, the European Space Agency ("ESA"), and the Italian Space Agency ("ASI") to send a probe to study the Saturnian system, including ...
NASA's Cassini spacecraft ended its groundbreaking 13-year mission to Saturn on Friday with a meteor-like plunge into the ringed planet's atmosphere.
Cassini has run low on propellant, and will become an artificial meteor at Saturn on Friday morning as it plunges to its death. NASA is now receiving the last photos ever taken by the Cassini ...
In April of last year, Cassini spent 44 hours staring at Saturn's atmosphere and capturing in-depth images. The mission to Saturn is a joint venture between NASA, the European Space Agency and the ...
This maneuver was repeated 22 times until September 15, 2017, at 11:55:46 UTC, when communication with Cassini’s high-gain antenna was lost during the final flyby of Saturn. Cassini’s grand finale represented the first intentional entry of a spacecraft into the atmosphere of a gas giant and marked the first major spacecraft to burn up in ...
As Cassini winds down its 20-year mission to Saturn, the spacecraft will maneuver into a series of weeklong orbits, allowing it to get a closer look at the planet's famous rings as it flies by.