Ten Years of Cassini
The Cassini-Huygens mission blasted off 10 years ago this week, with the goal of putting a spacecraft in orbit around Saturn.
The Cassini-Huygens mission blasted off 10 years ago this week, with the goal of putting a spacecraft in orbit around Saturn. True to its mission, Cassini parked itself three and a half years ago for a lingering four-year gaze at the ringed planet and its moons. The biggest highlight: peeling back the veil of haze enshrouding the moon Titan to reveal lakes of methane amid frozen hydrocarbon dunes. The Huygens probe, which detached from the Cassini craft during the approach to Saturn, descended in January, 2005, to Titan's surface.