A joint NASA, European Space Agency and Italian Space Agency mission combining NASA's Cassini Saturn orbiter with ESA's Huygens probe. Huygens landed on Saturn's moon Titan in January 2005, the first landing achieved in the outer Solar System. The mission concluded in September 2017 with Cassini's deliberate atmospheric entry into Saturn to protect potentially habitable moons from contamination.
Facts
Mission TypeRobotic outer planet orbiter and lander mission 1 OutcomeSuccessful; studied the Saturn system for thirteen years and returned the first landing data from the outer Solar System via Huygens, before Cassini's controlled entry into Saturn's atmosphere in September 2017. 1 Mission Type
Mission Type (category) Mission Type (category) Mission Type (category)Robotic / Uncrewed Mission 1 Connections
Associated With
Cassini, Spacecraft Cassini is the NASA-built Saturn orbiter component of this joint mission.
Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Additional Source Wikipedia: Cassini-HuygensCassini-Huygens, Overview section
Source Cassini-Huygens - NASA Science
Source Cassini-Huygens - NASA Science
Titan, Celestial Objects The Huygens probe landed on Titan in January 2005.
Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Additional Source Wikipedia: Titan (moon)Cassini-Huygens, Overview section
Operated By
Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Additional Source Cassini (Wikipedia)Cassini-Huygens, lead section
ASI contributed the high-gain antenna and radar instruments to the Cassini orbiter.
Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Additional Source Cassini (Wikipedia)Cassini-Huygens, lead section; Italian Space Agency, lead section
Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Additional Source Cassini (Wikipedia)Cassini-Huygens, lead section
Spacecraft Of
Source Cassini-Huygens (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia - Huygens (spacecraft)
Targets
Source Wikipedia: Dione (moon)
Source Enceladus (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Hyperion (moon)
Source Jupiter (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Phoebe (moon)
Source Wikipedia: Rhea (moon)
Source Saturn (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Tethys (moon)
Source Wikipedia: Titan (moon)
Sources
1. Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Wikimedia Foundation- Mission Type (category): Orbiter
- Mission Type (category): Lander / Rover
- Mission Type (category): Robotic / Uncrewed Mission
- Mission Type: Robotic outer planet orbiter and lander mission
- Launch Date: 1997-10-15
- End Date: 2017-09-15
- Outcome: Successful; studied the Saturn system for thirteen years and returned the first landing data from the outer Solar System via Huygens, before Cassini's controlled entry into Saturn's atmosphere in September 2017.
2. Cassini-Huygens (Wikipedia)
Lead paragraph
Flagship-class robotic spacecraft
Lead paragraph, target
to send a space probe to study the planet Saturn and its system
Lead paragraph, outcome
The mission was successful beyond expectations
Lead section
The mission was successful beyond expectations - NASA's Planetary Science Division Director, Jim Green, described Cassini-Huygens as a "mission of firsts" that 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-Huygens, lead section
Spacecraft Of: Cassini, Article text
Cassini-Huygens ( kə-SEE-nee HOY-gənz), commonly called Cassini, was a joint space-research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a space probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, including its rings and natural satellites.
Includes: Cassini, Article text
Cassini-Huygens ( kə-SEE-nee HOY-gənz), commonly called Cassini, was a joint space-research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a space probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, including its rings and natural satellites.
View the SourceCassini-Huygens - NASA Science
Associated With: Saturn, Mission to Saturn section
Cassini was a sophisticated robotic spacecraft sent to study Saturn and its complex system of rings and moons in unprecedented detail.
Associated With: Enceladus, Science at Saturn section, Enceladus image caption
Dramatic plumes, both large and small, spray water ice and vapor from many locations along the famed 'tiger stripes' near the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus.
View the SourceJupiter (Wikipedia)
Targets: Jupiter, Article textQuote, Targets: Jupiter, Article text
In 2000, the Cassini probe flew by Jupiter on its way to Saturn, and provided higher-resolution images.
Saturn (Wikipedia)
Targets: Saturn, Article textQuote, Targets: Saturn, Article text
While approaching Saturn in 2004, Cassini found that the radio rotation period of Saturn had increased appreciably, to approximately 10h 45m 45s ± 36s.
Wikipedia: Titan (moon)
Targets: Titan, Article text
Much as with Venus before the Space Age, the dense opaque atmosphere prevented understanding of Titan's surface until the Cassini-Huygens mission in 2004 provided new information, including the discovery of liquid hydrocarbon lakes in Titan's polar regions and the discovery of its atmospheric super-rotation.
- Associated With: Titan, Cassini-Huygens, Overview section
View the SourceEnceladus (Wikipedia)
Targets: Enceladus, Article textQuote, Targets: Enceladus, Article text
In 2005, the spacecraft Cassini started multiple close flybys of Enceladus, revealing its surface and environment in greater detail.
Wikipedia: Rhea (moon)
Targets: Rhea, Article textQuote, Targets: Rhea, Article text
Since then, it has been visited by both Voyager probes and was the subject of close targeted flybys by the Cassini orbiter in 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011, and once more in 2013.
Wikipedia: Tethys (moon)
Targets: Tethys, Article textQuote, Targets: Tethys, Article text
Tethys has been approached and observed by several space probes, including Pioneer 11 (1979), Voyager 1 (1980) and Voyager 2 (1981), with Cassini-Huygens observing the moon the most, and in greatest detail, during its extensive mission to the Saturnian system (2004-2017).
Wikipedia: Dione (moon)
Targets: Dione, Article textQuote, Targets: Dione, Article text
Later, the Cassini spacecraft made multiple flybys of Dione throughout the 2000s and 2010s as part of its campaign to explore the Saturn system.
Wikipedia: Hyperion (moon)
Targets: Hyperion, Article textQuote, Targets: Hyperion, Article text
The latest analyses of data obtained by Cassini during its flybys of Hyperion in 2005 and 2006 show that about 40 percent of it is empty space.
Wikipedia: Phoebe (moon)
Targets: Phoebe, Article textQuote, Targets: Phoebe, Article text
Phoebe was the first target encountered upon the arrival of the Cassini spacecraft in the Saturn system in 2004, and is thus unusually well-studied for an irregular moon of its size.
Cassini (Wikipedia)
- Operated By: NASA, Cassini-Huygens, lead section
- Operated By: European Space Agency, Cassini-Huygens, lead section
- Operated By: Italian Space Agency, Cassini-Huygens, lead section; Italian Space Agency, lead section
View the SourceWikipedia: Cassini-Huygens
Wikipedia - Huygens (spacecraft)
- Includes: Huygens, Wikipedia: Cassini-Huygens, lead section
Spacecraft Of: Huygens, Lead sentence
Built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), and launched by NASA, it was part of the Cassini-Huygens mission and became the first spacecraft to land on Titan and the farthest landing from Earth a spacecraft has ever made.
View the SourceCassini-Huygens Mission (Wikipedia)
In Group: NASA Outer Solar System and Small-Body Missions, Lead sentenceQuote, In Group: NASA Outer Solar System and Small-Body Missions, Lead sentence
Cassini-Huygens ( kə-SEE-nee HOY-gənz), commonly called Cassini, was a joint space-research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a space probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, including its rings and natural satellites.
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