Cassini Box Set
Source: NASA
ORIGINAL CAPTION: Workers offload the shipping container with the Cassini orbiter from what looks like a giant shark mouth, but is really an Air Force C-17 air cargo plane which just landed at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility from Edwards Air Force Base, California.
The orbiter and the Huygens probe already being processed at KSC are the two primary components of the Cassini spacecraft, which will be launched on a Titan IVB/Centaur expendable launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Air Station. Cassini will explore Saturn, its rings and moons for four years.
The Huygens probe, designed and developed for the European Space Agency (ESA), will be deployed from the orbiter to study the clouds, atmosphere and surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.
The orbiter was designed and assembled at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
Following postflight inspections, integration of the 12 science instruments not already installed on the orbiter will be completed. Then, the parabolic high-gain antenna and the propulsion module will be mated to the orbiter, followed by the Huygens probe, which will complete spacecraft integration. The Cassini mission is targeted for an Oct. 6 launch to begin its 6.7-year journey to the Saturnian system. Arrival at the planet is expected to occur around July 1, 2004.
The Centaur upper stage of the launch vehicle moments before lifoff. This image was captured from a video of the launch, which was taken from a camera on the launch tower. The video is available...
Centaur Stage
Mimas briefly slipped in front of Tethys while the Cassini spacecraft looked on and captured the event in this series of images. The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft ...
Quick Passage
This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 4, 2015, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,600 kilometers).
Dawn RC3 Image 10
Saturn's rings cut across an eerie scene that is ruled by Titan's luminous crescent and globe-encircling haze, broken by the small moon Enceladus, whose icy jets are dimly visible at its south pole...
Candle in the Dark
The right-hand image shows a dramatically improved view of heat radiation from a warm fissure near the south pole of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus. It was obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during...
Zooming in on Heat at Baghdad Sulcus
This image was taken on 2017-09-08 07:01 (PDT) and received on Earth 2017-09-09 12:58 (PDT).
Saturn's brightly lit rings slice across this Cassini spacecraft picture taken before a backdrop of the planet's clouds. The shadow of the rings can be seen cast upon the planet in the lower right...
Bright Slice
Intricate C Ring Details December 7, 2004 Full-Res: PIA06537 Saturn's inner C ring spreads across th...
Intricate C Ring Details
This image of Urvara Crater was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 20, 2018 from an altitude of about 920 miles (1480 kilometers).
Urvara Crater's Complex Floor
Saturn's moon Pan, orbiting in the Encke Gap near the top of the image, casts a short shadow on the A ring in this image taken about six months after the planet's August 2009 equinox. Pan (28 kilo...
Pan's Effects
Titan's First Close-Up October 26, 2004 This image is one of the closest ever taken of Saturn's hazy moon Titan. It was captured by Cassini's imaging scien...
Titan's First Close-Up
This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a surface with craters buried under thick ejected material that displays a grooved texture on the giant asteroid Vesta.
Smooth Ejecta with Grooved Surface Showing Buried Craters
The Cassini spacecraft looks upward at the swirling clouds of Saturn's southern hemisphere. The C and B rings are seen at right, beyond the planet's nightside limb. This view looks toward the sunl...
Saturn From Below
This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows Ikapati Crater with its complex of central peaks on Ceres. Several groupings of roughly parallel fractures are present in smooth areas of the crat...
Like a rope of brilliant neon, Saturn's rings outshine everything else in this night side view, while the sunlit southern face of the rings reflects a dim glow onto the atmosphere below. When viewe...
Gleaming Rings
The Titan IVB/Centaur carrying the Cassini spacecraft and its attached Huygens probe stand at Cape Canaveral Air Station's Launch Complex 40, awaiting liftoff. Clearly visible in this view are the ...
This evening when you are out visiting friends and family, look up. Saturn will be there to remind you of some of the winter season and holiday celebration beginnings. One can only imagine the se...
Solstice Season With Saturn
Here we see President John F. Kennedy giving his historic message to a joint session of the Congress, on 25 May 1961.
Kennedy Giving Historic Speech to Congress
Enceladus continues to exhale water ice into Saturn orbit, keeping the E ring topped off with tiny particles. Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) is a source of much interest for plan...
Living Moon
Atlas is seen in this image with several background stars as the moon orbits within the Roche Division -- the region between Saturn's A and F rings. Atlas (30 kilometers, or 19 miles across) is in...
Star Companions
The Cassini spacecraft's camera looks in near-infrared light at a dramatic view of Saturn, its ringplane and the shadows of a couple of its moons. The large shadow south of the equator is that of ...
Scene Seen in the Near-Infrared
The Cassini spacecraft took a break from imaging Saturn's rings as the planet approached its August 2009 equinox and snapped this close-up of the planet's atmosphere, revealing detailed and elabora...
Atmospheric Intricacies
This narrow angle field-of-view artist's rendering shows Titan's surface with Saturn dimly in the background through Titan's thick atmosphere of methane, ethane and (mostly) nitrogen. The Cassini s...
Crater Lake on Titan
Forever changing, the F ring takes on a ladder-like appearance in this recent Cassini spacecraft image. Scientists believe that interactions between the F ring and the moons Prometheus and Pandora ...
Ladder-like Ring