The Cassini-Huygens Mission, unique and fundamental in the space conquest History.

October 15, 1997 : Cassini-Huygens space probe take off at the Kennedy Space Center to Saturn. It reaches the saturnian region in July 2004.

The mission is composed of 2 elements : the Cassini spacecraft which will orbit Saturn for 4 years, and the Huygens probe which will separate from Cassini to dive into the atmosphere of Titan. It will reach its surface in January 2005.

Sophisticated instruments will feed scientists with vital data to understand this mysterious region.

Unique moon of our solar system with its own atmosphere, Titan is the best place to study "primordial soup" from which life emerged on Earth.

On observation depends the understanding of the origin of humankind, and to prepare our potential space exodus.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a joint mission by the American (NASA), European (ESA) and Italian (ASI) space agencies.

MISSION IN REAL TIME

Find out where is the Cassini orbiter day by day !

                  

KEY FIGURES

The budget for the Cassin-Huygens mission : $ 3,3 billion.
Number of scientists working on the project : 150.
Duration of Saturn's observation by Cassini : between 4 and 7 years.
Duration of Titan's observation by Huygens : about 2:30 hours.
Time needed to analyze data : more than 10 years.

USEFUL WEB SITES

To follow the Cassini-Huygens mission :
ESA web site :
http://www.esa.int
The special page of the mission :
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEMYXC2VQUD_0.html
NASA web site :
http://www.nasa.gov
Special page of the mission :
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html
ASI web site :
http://www.asi.it