September 2017 – Cassini End of Mission
On Sept. 15, 2017, operators deliberately plunged the spacecraft into Saturn, as Cassini gathered science until the end. Launched in 1997 with the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Huygens probe, Cassini was the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn. Among Cassini’s objectives was the study of Saturn’s rings, Titan’s atmosphere, and the behavior of Saturn’s magnetosphere. The Deep Space Network (DSN) provided communications and navigation for the Cassini mission.