Cassini-Huygens
Cassini-Huygens was a joint space-research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency to study Saturn and its system. Launched on October 15, 1997, the spacecraft consisted of two main components: NASA's Cassini orbiter and ESA's Huygens lander. Cassini entered Saturn's orbit in 2004 and remained active for 13 years, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn. The Huygens probe made the first landing in the outer Solar System when it touched down on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005. The mission revolutionized our understanding of Saturn's rings, moons, and the potential for life in the Solar System before deliberately ending on September 15, 2017.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org: “Cassini was the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter its orbit, where it stayed from 2004 to 2017.”
- en.wikipedia.org: “This was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer Solar System and the first landing on a moon other than Earth's Moon.”
- en.wikipedia.org: “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.”