Which NASA mission orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017?
Answer
Cassini
NASA’s Cassini mission orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017.
The Cassini spacecraft launched on October 15, 1997, as part of the international Cassini–Huygens mission. NASA led the orbiter, while the European Space Agency built the Huygens probe. Cassini entered orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004, after a journey of nearly seven years.
During its mission, Cassini studied Saturn’s rings, atmosphere, magnetosphere, and moons. It discovered evidence of a subsurface ocean on Enceladus and investigated Titan’s thick atmosphere and methane lakes. Huygens landed on Titan in January 2005, becoming the first probe to land on a moon in the outer Solar System.
Cassini ended its mission on September 15, 2017, when it entered Saturn’s atmosphere. The controlled plunge prevented the spacecraft from accidentally contaminating potentially habitable moons.