Cassini mission concludes with intentional dive into Saturn

On September 15, 2017, the Cassini mission concluded after nearly 20 years in space and 13 years orbiting Saturn. To prevent the spacecraft from accidentally impacting and contaminating Saturn's moons, mission controllers directed the orbiter to perform an intentional dive into the gas giant's atmosphere. The spacecraft disintegrated and vaporized during this final descent.

A joint mission between NASA, the ESA, and the Italian Space Agency, Cassini provided unprecedented data regarding the Saturnian system. Key discoveries include the presence of liquid methane lakes on Titan, the potential habitability of Enceladus due to water vapor geysers and a subsurface ocean, and detailed observations of Saturn's rings and storms. The mission also included the Huygens probe, which achieved the first landing on a body in the outer Solar System by touching down on Titan in 2005.