Under the family Christmas trees in 2004, children found Nintendo DS, PSPs and other gifts of the time. For science and space research, the greatest gift was achieved by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraftthat on December 25 that year began its journey to Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.
The Cassini-Huygens unmanned mission, valued at $3.26 billionwas a joint project of the NASA, ESA and ASI (Italian Space Agency) whose objective was to study Saturn, the sixth planet in the solar system counting from the Sun, the second in size and mass after Jupiter and the only one with a ring system visible from Earth.
The spacecraft was divided into two main elements: the Cassini probe and the Huygens descent module, launched on October 15, 1997 from Cape Canaveral with a two-stage Titan IVB/Centaur rocket and entered orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004.
What happened on December 25, 2004?
During Christmas 2004, the probe separated from the spacecraft at approximately 02:00 UTCbeginning the imminent journey to Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.
It was on January 14, 2005 when Cassini arrived at the satellite to obtain scientific information. Officially, this spacecraft was the first to orbit Saturn and the fourth human-made spacecraft to reach the planet.
The space agencies’ plan, initially, was for the Cassini orbiter to fly by Saturn and its moons for four years and for the probe to penetrate Titan’s atmosphere and land on its surface.
The mission was extended until September 15, 2017, date until the fuel was reached. Earlier, on April 26 of that year, Cassini entered the space between Saturn and its rings, fulfilling its last mission before disintegrating on September 15, destroyed to prevent it from contaminating the planet’s moons.
