NASA's $3.9-bn spacecraft crashes into Saturn, ends 20-year mission
NASA's Cassini spacecraft plunged into Saturn's atmosphere today, at a speed of over 120,000 km/hr, ending a $3.9-billion mission. Cassini had taken 453,048 images of Saturn's solar system during its lifetime. Scientists from the Jet Propulsion Lab, which built the Saturn probe, are monitoring Cassini during its final minutes on Saturn's atmosphere to collect data.
Cassini is NASA's unmanned robotic spacecraft which was launched in collaboration with the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The spacecraft was operated to probe Saturn and its natural satellites. The mission, worth $3.6 billion, was launched nearly two decades ago, and later entered Saturn's orbit in 2004. The entry pitched Cassini as the first ever spacecraft to enter the planet's orbit.
The Saturn probe was to end by 2008, but was given extensions till 2017. With fuel running out, the spacecraft is set to make its final passes through Saturn and its rings, before destruction. At present, Cassini is around 100,000 kilometers away from Saturn.
"Not only do we have an environment [at Saturn] that is just overwhelming in its abundance of scientific mysteries and puzzles, we got a spacecraft and a team that could exploit it. It's just been an amazing, amazing mission," Earl Maize, Cassini's program manager, said.
