Launch vehicleRetired
Titan IVB-Centaur
Heavy orbital and interplanetary launch vehicle
Vehicle and mission dossier
Cassini-Huygens
Cassini-Huygens launched on October 15, 1997 toward Saturn system and Titan. The 12,593 pounds (5,712 kilograms) fueled with Huygens spacecraft carried twelve cassini remote-sensing, fields, particles, dust, radar, radio, and mass-spectrometry investigations plus six huygens atmospheric and surface experiments. Huygens descended through Titan's haze to a river-shaped landscape while Cassini orbited Saturn 293 times, discovered active water-rich plumes at Enceladus, mapped Titan's methane seas, studied rings and moons through seasonal change, and ended with 22 Grand Finale dives.
Flight profile
- Launch
- October 15, 1997
Places and recovery
Vehicle record
- Manufacturer
- Lockheed Martin
- Vehicle class
- Interplanetary
- Archive missions
- Cassini-Huygens
- Status
- Retired configuration
- Program role
- Deep-space injection
- Arrival / encounter
- Saturn orbit July 1, 2004; Huygens landed January 14, 2005
- Destination
- Saturn system and Titan
- Operator
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, European Space Agency, and Italian Space Agency
- Mission type
- Saturn and Titan atmospheric
- Launch vehicle
- Titan IVB-Centaur
- Spacecraft mass
- 12,593 pounds (5,712 kilograms) fueled with Huygens
- Program
- Cassini-Huygens
- Crew complement
- 0
- Science payload
- Twelve Cassini remote-sensing, fields, particles, dust, radar, radio, and mass-spectrometry investigations plus six Huygens atmospheric and surface experiments
- Outcome
- Successful; Cassini entered Saturn September 15, 2017
Flight objectives
- Conduct a comprehensive, long-duration study of Saturn, its rings, atmosphere, magnetosphere, and diverse moons and directly measure Titan's atmosphere and surface during descent and landing.
- Complete interplanetary cruise, , saturn orbit july 1, 2004; huygens landed january 14, 2005, and commissioning of Cassini and Huygens Titan .
- Operate navigation, power, thermal, telecommunications, autonomy, science instruments, and permanent planetary-data archive systems across the full mission.
- Huygens descended through Titan's haze to a river-shaped landscape while Cassini orbited Saturn 293 times, discovered active water-rich plumes at Enceladus, mapped Titan's methane seas, studied rings and moons through seasonal change, and ended with 22 Grand Finale dives.
Flight timeline
- October 15, 1997LaunchCassini-Huygens departs Earth aboard Titan IVB-Centaur.
- Saturn orbit July 1, 2004; Huygens landed January 14, 2005Primary encounter milestoneCassini and Huygens Titan reaches its documented planetary or small-body target phase.
- Science milestoneCassini-Huygens reveals an ocean-bearing Saturn system and completes the first landing in the outer solar systemHuygens descended through Titan's haze to a river-shaped landscape while Cassini orbited Saturn 293 times, discovered active water-rich plumes at Enceladus, mapped Titan's methane seas, studied rings and moons through seasonal change, and ended with 22 Grand Finale dives.
- Recorded outcomeSuccessful; Cassini entered Saturn September 15, 2017Cassini-Huygens's observations and returned materials remain part of the permanent planetary archive.