Space: Cassini-Huygens Reaches Saturn

American space mission, the first to be pulled into Saturn's orbit in order to photograph the ringed planet and its moons. The successful entrance into Saturn's orbit came six years and 261 days after its launch! Time magazine reports that at 7:36 PM the propulsion engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA announced "engine turn-on" when the signal came down that the ship's fire had been lit. "It was not until 9:12 that the same engineer spoke the worlds that meant the engine firing was over and the spacecraft had survived."

In a press release issued on 30 June 2004, NASA announced, "The international Cassini-Huygens mission has successfully entered orbit around Saturn. At 9:12 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, flight controllers received confirmation that Cassini had completed the engine burn needed to place the spacecraft into the correct orbit. This begins a four-year study of the giant planet, its majestic rings and 31 known moons."

Cassini-Huygens was launched from Kennedy Space Center on 15 October 1997.