Cassini 10 Years: NASA Celebrates Decade of Saturn-Orbiting Spacecraft

The NASA spacecraft Cassini has been orbiting Saturn for 10 years today, and numerous discoveries and observations have been cataloged during that decade.

Originally intended to return home in four years, the Cassini’s mission has been extended three times. NASA highlighted top accomplishments and discoveries from the mission, including the discovery of active, icy plumes on the Saturnian moon Enceladus; the European Space Agency Huygens probe making the first landing on a moon, Titan, in the outer solar system; and the revelation that Titan was an Earth-like world with rain, rivers, lakes and seas.

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"Having a healthy, long-lived spacecraft at Saturn has afforded us a precious opportunity," Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a release. "By having a decade there with Cassini, we have been privileged to witness never-before-seen events that are changing our understanding of how planetary systems form and what conditions might lead to habitats for life."

To celebrate the 10th anniversary, the Cassini team selected favorite images to create a gallery and described in their words why the images are special.

In a photo showing the gorgeous colors of Saturn’s rings in ultraviolet light, Cassini team member Joshua Colwell wrote, “Cassini has allowed us to view the Saturn system through new eyes, seeing things that we could never see on our own. This stunning rendering shows us Saturn’s rings in ultraviolet light, extending our understanding of the rings by showing it to us in a way we could never see without Cassini.”

"Our team has done a fantastic job optimizing trajectories to save propellant, and we've learned to operate the spacecraft to get the most out of it that we possibly can," said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in the NASA release. "We're proud to celebrate a decade of exploring Saturn, and we look forward to many discoveries still to come."

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