Goodbye Cassini Nasa Spacecraft Makes Death Plunge Into Saturn S The $3.26 billion cassini huygens mission — a joint effort by nasa, the european space agency and the italian space agency — launched in 1997 and arrived at the saturn system in 2004. in 2005. A thrilling epoch in the exploration of our solar system came to a close today, as nasa’s cassini spacecraft made a fateful plunge into the atmosphere of saturn, ending its 13 year tour of the ringed planet. “this is the final chapter of an amazing mission, but it’s also a new beginning,” said thomas zurbuchen, associate administrator.
Rip Cassini Historic Mission Ends With Fiery Plunge Into Saturn Credit: nasa jpl caltech. washington — nasa’s cassini spacecraft ended a nearly 20 year mission sept. 15 with a plunge into the atmosphere of the planet saturn intended to protect the planet. September 15, 2017. — in the end, cassini concluded its 13 year nasa mission orbiting saturn in a meteoritic blaze that likely lasted less than two minutes. plunging into saturn's upper atmosphere at 77,000 miles per hour (124,000 kp h), cassini, a bus sized nasa probe, fired its thrusters to keep its high gain antenna pointed at the earth. Sept. 15, 2017 6:33 a.m. pt. 2 min read. watch as nasa's cassini spacecraft sends its last signal to earth. after traversing the solar system for almost 20 years and delivering a trove of valuable. Now 20 years since launching from earth, and after 13 years orbiting the ringed planet, cassini is running low on fuel. in 2010, nasa decided to end the mission with a purposeful plunge into saturn this year in order to protect and preserve the planet’s moons for future exploration – especially the potentially habitable enceladus.
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