Several countries are a part of the Cassini mission.
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Courtesy of NASA
Cassini
Cassini is the name of a robot spacecraft. Cassini is studying the planet Saturn.
It is also studying many of Saturn's
moons and Saturn's cool
rings.
Cassini blasted off from Earth in
1997. It took Cassini almost seven years to get to Saturn! Cassini
started to orbit Saturn on July 1, 2004.
It will study Saturn for four years. Cassini has many science instruments that
it is using to study Saturn.
Cassini is also carrying another small robot spacecraft. That robot is named
Huygens. Huygens will land on the large moon Titan.
Just before Cassini got to Saturn it flew by a moon named Phoebe.
Cassini took the first good pictures of Phoebe. That happened on June 11, 2004.
Cassini is named after the scientist Giovanni
Cassini. He discovered a gap between
two of Saturn's rings. He also discovered many of Saturn's moons.
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