The Cassini–Huygens space-research mission, commonly called Cassini, involved a collaboration among NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a space probe to study the Saturn planet and its system, including its rings and natural satellites. The Flagship-class robotic spacecraft comprised both NASA's Cassini space probe and ESA's Huygens lander, which landed on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Cassini was the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter its orbit. The two craft took their names from the astronomers Giovanni Cassini and Christiaan Huygens.

Launched aboard a Titan IVB/Centaur on October 15, 1997, Cassini was active in space for nearly 20 years, with 13 years spent orbiting Saturn and studying the planet and its system after entering orbit on July 1, 2004. The voyage to Saturn included flybys of Venus (April 1998 and July 1999), Earth (August 1999), the asteroid 2685 Masursky, and Jupiter (December 2000). The mission ended on September 15, 2017, when Cassini's trajectory took it into Saturn's upper atmosphere and it burned up in order to prevent any risk of contaminating Saturn's moons, which might have offered habitable environments to stowaway terrestrial microbes on the spacecraft. The mission was successful beyond expectations – NASA's Planetary Science Division Director, Jim Green, described Cassini-Huygens as a "mission of firsts" that has revolutionized human understanding of the Saturn system, including its moons and rings, and our understanding of where life might be found in the Solar System.

Cassini's planners originally scheduled a mission of four years, from June 2004 to May 2008. The mission was extended for another two years until September 2010, branded the Cassini Equinox Mission. The mission was extended a second and final time with the Cassini Solstice Mission, lasting another seven years until September 15, 2017, on which date Cassini was de-orbited to burn up in Saturn's upper atmosphere.

The Huygens module traveled with Cassini until its separation from the probe on December 25, 2004; Huygens landed by parachute on Titan on January 14, 2005. It returned data to Earth for around 90 minutes, using the orbiter as a relay. This was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer Solar System and the first landing on a moon other than Earth's Moon.

At the end of its mission, the Cassini spacecraft executed its "Grand Finale": a number of risky passes through the gaps between Saturn and Saturn's inner rings. This phase aimed to maximize Cassini's scientific outcome before the spacecraft was intentionally destroyed. The atmospheric entry of Cassini ended the mission, but analysis of the returned data will continue for many years.

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    • DeathToBritain [she/her,they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      no I fuck with the guy all the time to make him mad. he knows I am a gay trans communist lmao. you should have seen his reaction when I went to go fight for BLM

      • PeterTheAverage [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Damn I can only imagine. I feel like a coward now, I tend to hide my views to avoid conflict, I have gone on a couple rants about how much capitalism sucks but my Dad more or less or just knows that I supported Bernie in the primaries (though he thinks Bernie is a commie so maybe I'm not hiding my power level so well after all). I try to find some opportunities here and there.

        For example my uncle started a successful company with his siblings but everything falls apart every time either of these two specific employees go on vacation while the owners just play golf all day and frequently take long vacations without it affecting the company, hard to not point out who the valuable ones really are in that situation.

        Conflicts have still happened though. Last year my wife got her student visa canceled by a border agent with a stick up his ass, and she got sent back to her home country. The next time I saw my dad I ended up blowing my top at him, calling him a corporate bootlicker and throwing a pillow at him lol.

        • DeathToBritain [she/her,they/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I just like to do a little trolling, it's not that principled on my end more than " u mad bro? :troll: " I know it's pointless to argue shit with him he's just gonna say some nazi shit and get mad