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Cassini–Huygens

Image: NASA/JPL · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Planetary science

Cassini–Huygens

Completed

NASA · ESA · ASI

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Image: NASA/JPL · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Launched
15 Oct 199708:43:01 UTC
Last contact
15 Sept 201711:55:46 UTC
End declared
15 Sept 2017
Duration
19 years 11 months
Destinations
Jupiter, Saturn, Titan

A joint NASA, ESA and Italian Space Agency mission that orbited Saturn for 13 years and landed the Huygens probe on Titan. It ended with a planned dive into Saturn's atmosphere.

Milestones

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2000200520102015

Spacecraft

Cassini

Orbiter
Completed

Saturn orbiter carrying twelve science instruments and a 4 m high-gain antenna, powered by three radioisotope thermoelectric generators.

Launch mass
5,254 kg
Dry mass
2,125 kg
Size
6.7 m × 4 m
Power
Radioisotope
Last contact
15 Sept 2017, 11:55:46 UTC
End declared
15 Sept 2017
Designator
1997-061A

Huygens

Lander
Completed

ESA's atmospheric probe, which descended by parachute through Titan's atmosphere and returned data from the surface: the first landing in the outer Solar System.

Launch mass
320 kg
Size
0.5 m × 1.1 m, span 1.1 m
Power
Battery
Last contact
14 Jan 2005

Mission details from science.nasa.gov.