Portal:Spaceflight/Selected article/Week 43 2006

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Cassini-Huygens is a joint NASA/ESA/ASI unmanned space mission intended to study Saturn and its moons. The spacecraft consists of two main elements: the NASA Cassini orbiter, named after the Italian-French astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, and the ESA Huygens probe, named after the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens. It was launched on October 15, 1997 and entered into orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004. On December 25, 2004 the Huygens probe separated from the orbiter at approximately 02:00 UTC, with deployment confirmed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The probe reached Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005, where it made an atmospheric descent to the surface and relayed scientific information. It is the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn and the fourth spacecraft to visit Saturn.