MAJOR EVENTS
- 1655 MAR 25
Titan dicovered - 1979 SEP 02
First ever close-up picture taken - 1997 OCT 15
Cassini-Huygens launches - 2004 MAY 20
Best resolution picture to-date - 2004 JUL 01
Cassini-Huygens reaches Saturn - 2005 JAN 14
Huygens lands on Titan - 2010 FEB 03
NASA extends mission - 2017 to Come
Cassini's exploration ends - 2017 and Beyond
Future missions
CASSINI-HUYGENS LAUNCHES
Launched on October 15, 1997 on a Titan IVB/Centaur, Cassini-Huygens is a flagship-class NASA-ESA-ASI robotic spacecraft sent to the Saturn system. It has studied the planet and its many natural satellites since arriving there in 2004, also observing Jupiter, the Heliosphere, and testing the theory of relativity.
Launched in 1997 after nearly two decades of gestation, it includes a Saturn orbiter and an atmospheric probe/lander for the moon Titan called Huygens, which entered and landed on Titan in 2005. Cassini is the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter orbit, and its mission is ongoing as of 2012.