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Watch NASA’s Cassini mission come to an end 20 years after launching

Watch NASA’s Cassini mission come to an end 20 years after launching

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A bittersweet goodbye

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NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will bid farewell later this morning, after spending 13 years orbiting the Saturn system. It’s a bittersweet goodbye — the probe was launched in 1997 and has successfully lasted through two mission extensions. Today it will dive into Saturn’s atmosphere, and break apart, ending its 20-year journey.

Cassini has discovered plenty of things along the way, changing our understanding of Saturn’s moons while also mapping the planet’s rings and giant storms. Cassini also took some incredible photos during its travels.

Saturn’s gravity pulled Cassini into the planet at 6:31AM ET, but the last signal won’t reach Earth until about 83 minutes later. You can watch as mission control gets word that the spacecraft meets its fiery doom through a stream of the event via NASA or even through a 360 video.