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On September 15, 2017 NASA's Cassini spacecraft was directed into the upper atmosphere of the planet Saturn. The spacecraft was launched on a Titan IV(401)B B-33 rocket on October 15, 1997 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 located in Florida. The craft was constructed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and carried a lander, named Huygens which was built by the Alcatel Alenia Space. Huygens was deployed from its carrier spacecraft on January 14, 2005. Since its arrival in orbit around the ringed planet, Cassini has spent the past 14 years in orbit, conducting passes above the gas giant and its tenant moons - and transforming what humanity knows about this distant world. Cassini / Huygens helped provide the first glimpse of the smoggy moon Titan's surface and Cassini itself has discovered seven new moons around the massive planet. It also completed numerous flybys of Enceladus, Rhea, Dione, Hyperion Iapetus and, most notably - Titan. Cassini also helped to prove that Titan has lakes of liquid methane. Photos courtesy: Matthew Kuhns
