On this day in space! Oct. 15, 1997: NASA launches Cassini-Hugyens probe on 7-year voyage to Saturn

On this day in space, ten years ago, NASA launched the Cassini spacecraft on its mission to explore Saturn and its moons. The $3.26 billion Cassini spacecraft, carrying the European Space Agency's Huygens lander, lifted off aboard a Titan 4B rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on October 15, 1997. It took nearly seven years for the spacecraft to reach Saturn, with the probe entering orbit around the ringed planet in 2004.

Another spacecraft, Huygens, hitched a ride with Cassini and landed on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005. The Cassini mission lasted about 20 years, studying the Saturn system up close. In 2017, due to the spacecraft running low on fuel, NASA chose to end the mission by sending Cassini into a death dive into Saturn's atmosphere, where the probe was destroyed.