Chat with us, powered by LiveChat

In what has been described as the most ambitious planetary space exploration ever undertaken, the Cassini-Huygens unmanned spacecraft embarked on its long journey to study the planet Saturn and its satellites on October 15, 1997. The joint NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and ASI (Italian Space Agency) team responsible for the mission must have been firm believers in the old adage ‘good things come to those who wait’ because it would be seven years before the spacecraft reached its destination.

On July 1, 2004 Cassini-Huygens became the first space probe to enter orbit around the famously ringed planet, with its ‘lander’, Huygens, making a parachute descent to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in 2005.

Since then the mission has provided unprecedented knowledge of Saturn, from discoveries like the seas of liquid methane on Titan and water activity on another of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus, to observing a mighty hurricane on Saturn itself, with 350 mph winds.

After two extensions, the curtain was finally brought down on the mission on September 15, 2017. In a Grand Finale, the Cassini spacecraft was deliberately plunged into Saturn’s atmosphere to burn up and disintegrate like a meteor, avoiding any possibility of contaminating Saturn’s potentially habitable moons.

* All costs calculated in 2017 $US

Start your R&D tax credit claim now

Jumpstart white asterisk
Jumpstart your R&D tax credits…Call us on 0844 967 2626