Cassini–Huygens: Lookback at an Exceptional Exploration Mission
On January 14, 2005, the Huygens probe made history by becoming the first spacecraft to land on Titan, Saturn’s largest and most mysterious moon. This spectacular achievement, the result of exemplary international collaboration, pushed back the frontiers of interplanetary exploration and stands today as an unprecedented feat of engineering and science.
Boldly to the edge of our Solar System
Our story begins on October 15, 1997, with the launch of the Cassini–Huygens mission to explore Saturn and its moons as never before. Using “swingby” gravity assists from Venus, Earth and Jupiter, the interplanetary mission covered more than 3 billion kilometers in seven years. In July 2004, the Cassini–Huygens spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn. A few months later, the Huygens probe detached from the Cassini orbiter to begin its historic parachute descent into the unknown.
On January 14, 2005, after 148 minutes in a dense, opaque atmosphere, Huygens touched down successfully on Titan’s surface. For the first time, a space probe had reached a moon more than a billion kilometers from Earth!
