While NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has been in operation for two decades now, it has nearly depleted its fuel reserves. Over half of that time has been spent taking readings from and exploring the space around Saturn, giving us a great insight into the ringed planet. But as with all good things, the spacecraft’s mission must come to an end and that’s one event worth waiting for.
The way in which NASA intends to stop the mission is by making the spacecraft dive through the space between Saturn and its rings several times, before eventually crashing it into the planet itself (which is something NASA are quite good at, so no worries there). It should be quite a spectacular event which will begin on April 26th when NASA will send Cassini diving for the first time, bringing it closer than ever to the Saturn. This will happen another 21 times, each time sending valuable data and photos back to Earth.
After its last dive, Cassini will fly right into Saturn’s atmosphere where it will burn up and disintegrate. Even as the craft disintegrates, right up until its final last moments, it will stream back data for us to analyze down here on Earth. Cassini’s very final end of the mission is expected to occur on September 15 unless something drastic happens before then. So it’s time to say goodbye to good old Cassini, and thanks for all you’ve given us.
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