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Cassini-Huygens enters orbit around the ringed planet

1 July 2004

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This is a narrow-angle camera image of Saturn's rings taken after the successful completion of the orbit insertion burn and when Cassini-Huygens was cruising over the rings. It shows the sunlit side of the rings.

Credits: NASA/JPL

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At 08:43 UT, 15 October 1997, a Titan IV-Centaur rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral carrying the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft.

Cassini-Huygens is a joint NASA/ESA mission. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will orbit Saturn for four years, making an extensive survey of the ringed planet. The ESA Huygens probe will be the first to land on a world in the outer Solar System - on the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Data from Cassini and Huygens may offer clues about how life began on Earth.

Credits: NASA

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This montage of images of the Saturnian system was prepared from images taken by the US Voyager 1 spacecraft during its Saturn encounter in November 1980. This artist's arrangement shows Dione in the foreground, Saturn rising behind, Tethys and Mimas fading in the distance to the right, Enceladus and Rhea off Saturn's rings to the left, and Titan in the distant orbit at the top.

Credits: NASA

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ESA's Huygens probe descends through Titan's mysterious atmosphere to unveil the hidden surface (artist's impression)

New Saturn images

At Saturn and Titan

More about...

More on getting there More on arrival More on Huygens descent More on Cassini's tour

Cassini-Huygens due to arrive at Saturn Communicating from space: gaining a grip on antennas Christiaan Huygens: Discoverer of Titan Jean-Dominique Cassini: Astrology to astronomy