Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA and the European and Italian space agencies. Cassini was launched Oct. 15, 1997, on a seven-year 2.2 billion-mile journey. The spacecraft entered Saturn's orbit June 30, 2004.
U.S. space agency's Cassini spacecraft is ending its first mission at Saturn and starting a two-year task to focus on Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus.
Cassini completed its four-year primary mission on 30th June, 2008, beginning the extended mission. Among other things, Cassini revealed the Earth-like world of Saturn's moon Titan and showed the potential habitability of another moon, Enceladus.
These two worlds are primary targets in the two-year extended mission, dubbed the Cassini Equinox Mission. This time period also will allow for monitoring seasonal effects on Titan and Saturn, exploring new places within Saturn's magnetosphere, and observing the unique ring geometry of the Saturn equinox in August of 2009, when sunlight will pass directly through the plane of the rings.
NASA said data from Cassini's could lay the groundwork for possible future missions to Saturn, Titan or Enceladus.
U.S. space agency's Cassini spacecraft is ending its first mission at Saturn and starting a two-year task to focus on Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus.
Cassini completed its four-year primary mission on 30th June, 2008, beginning the extended mission. Among other things, Cassini revealed the Earth-like world of Saturn's moon Titan and showed the potential habitability of another moon, Enceladus.
These two worlds are primary targets in the two-year extended mission, dubbed the Cassini Equinox Mission. This time period also will allow for monitoring seasonal effects on Titan and Saturn, exploring new places within Saturn's magnetosphere, and observing the unique ring geometry of the Saturn equinox in August of 2009, when sunlight will pass directly through the plane of the rings.
NASA said data from Cassini's could lay the groundwork for possible future missions to Saturn, Titan or Enceladus.
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