Cassini-Huygens: mission and targets
Data as of 2026-10-04
Dates declared by the archive
- Project start
- October 15, 1997
- Declared end
- September 15, 2017
The start the archive declares is the start of the project, not the launch, and an end it does not declare does not mean the mission is still running.
In Galaxy
Targets you can open in 3D:
- Earth
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- Venus
- Moon
- Callisto
- Europa
- Ganymede
- Io
- Dione
- Enceladus
- Hyperion
- Iapetus
- Mimas
- Rhea
- Tethys
- Titan
- Sun
Spacecraft of this mission that Galaxy follows:
A declared target is what the archive files the mission’s data under, not a record of observation.
Description published by the archive
Orbiting the ringed planet Saturn and its numerous moons, the Cassini spacecraft was a keystone of exploration of the Saturnian system and the properties of gaseous planets in our solar system. A joint endeavor of NASA, the European Space Agency, or ESA, and the Italian Space Agency, Cassini launched in 1997 along with ESA's Huygens probe. The spacecraft contributed to studies of Jupiter for six months in 2000 before reaching its destination, Saturn, in 2004 and starting a string of flybys of Saturn's moons. That same year it released the Huygens probe on Saturn's moon Titan to conduct a study of the moon's atmosphere and surface composition. In its second extended mission, Cassini made the first observations of a complete seasonal period for Saturn and its moons, flew between the rings and descended into the planet's atmosphere.
Quoted in English, as the archive publishes it, read on October 4, 2026.
Other targets declared
- 2685 Masursky (asteroid)
- Gravitational Waves (astrophysical phenomenon)
- DUST (dust)
- Solar System (planetary system)
- SOLAR WIND (plasma stream)
- Aegaeon (satellite)
- Albiorix (satellite)
- Anthe (satellite)
- Atlas (satellite)
- Bebhionn (satellite)
- Bergelmir (satellite)
- Bestla (satellite)
- Calypso (satellite)
- Daphnis (satellite)
- Epimetheus (satellite)
- Erriapus (satellite)
- Fornjot (satellite)
- Greip (satellite)
- Hati (satellite)
- Helene (satellite)
- Hyrrokkin (satellite)
- Ijiraq (satellite)
- Janus (satellite)
- Kari (satellite)
- Kiviuq (satellite)
- Loge (satellite)
- Methone (satellite)
- Mundilfari (satellite)
- Narvi (satellite)
- Paaliaq (satellite)
- Pallene (satellite)
- Pan (satellite)
- Pandora (satellite)
- Phoebe (satellite)
- Polydeuces (satellite)
- Prometheus (satellite)
- Siarnaq (satellite)
- Skathi (satellite)
- Skoll (satellite)
- Surtur (satellite)
- Suttungr (satellite)
- Tarqeq (satellite)
- Tarvos (satellite)
- Telesto (satellite)
- Thrymr (satellite)
- Ymir (satellite)
- Spica (star)
- WASP-3 (star)
Source
Identifier in the archive, which is its citation: urn:nasa:pds:context:investigation:mission.cassini-huygens
NASA Planetary Data System, PDS Registry, investigation context products. Dates and targets read on September 29, 2026; how to cite the archive: https://pds.nasa.gov/datastandards/citing/