Cassini – Page 2 – Spaceflight Now

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft aims to skirt Saturn’s innermost ring

May 22, 2017 Stephen Clark

Fresh off its fifth passage through a gap between Saturn’s atmosphere and rings, NASA’s robotic Cassini spacecraft is looping toward a close brush with the planet’s innermost ring next week, when the probe will again use its high-gain antenna as a shield against icy particles that may lie in its path.

Cassini downlinks view of Titan’s methane clouds on third loop inside rings

May 9, 2017 Stephen Clark

The Cassini spacecraft captured a captivating image of wispy methane clouds suspended above Titan’s hydrocarbon lakes as the probe headed for its third shot through Saturn’s ring gap Tuesday.

NASA probe finds Saturn ring gap emptier than predicted

May 3, 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sped through a gap between Saturn and its rings for the second time Tuesday after data from the probe’s first perilous passage through the unexplored region last week found it to contain fewer potentially hazardous dust particles than expected.

Cassini contacts Earth after flying inside Saturn’s rings

April 27, 2017 Stephen Clark

Ground controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed Thursday the Cassini spacecraft survived its first trip between Saturn and its rings, the closest any probe has ever come to the planet.

Cassini sails by Saturn’s moon Titan for last time

April 24, 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sped by the moon Titan on Saturday, using the hazy world’s gravity to slingshot the probe on a trailblazing trajectory to explore the region between Saturn’s hydrogen-helium atmosphere and the planet’s famous rings for the first time.

Saturn’s disk-shaped moon Atlas spotted by Cassini

April 16, 2017 Stephen Clark

One of Saturn’s peculiar moons has received an up-close look from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which sent back the best-ever pictures of Atlas, an object shaped like a flying saucer orbiting just outside the planet’s rings.

New discoveries raise prospects for life on moons of Jupiter and Saturn

April 13, 2017 Stephen Clark

Scientists announced Thursday that measurements from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft detected hydrogen gas, a key energy source for microbial life, in a plume gushing from a vast liquid water ocean buried beneath the icy shell of Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

Perils and discoveries lie ahead for long-lived Saturn orbiter

March 11, 2017 Stephen Clark

Scientists are bracing for a blitz of discoveries in the last six months of Cassini’s mission at Saturn, when the plutonium-powered robot will repeatedly ram through an unexplored gap in the planet’s famous rings, then make a destructive plunge into the atmosphere in September.

Cassini glimpses saucer-shaped moon plowing through Saturn’s rings

March 11, 2017 Stephen Clark

Saturn’s moon Pan, embedded in a gap in Saturn’s icy rings, has drawn comparisons to a walnut or ravioli in new images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.

Q&A with Earl Maize, Cassini project manager (members only)

March 9, 2017 Stephen Clark

Earl Maize, who leads the Cassini mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, started working on the Saturn orbiter project in 1992. In September, the spacecraft will take an intentional plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere, gaining unprecedented up-close measurements and ending a 13-year odyssey round the ringed planet.