CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft disintegrated in the skies above Saturn early Friday in a final, fateful blaze of cosmic glory, following a remarkable journey of 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Confirmation of Cassini\u2019s expected demise came about 7:55 a.m. EDT. That\u2019s when radio signals from the spacecraft \u2014 its last scientific gifts to Earth \u2014 came to an abrupt halt. The radio waves went flat, and the spacecraft fell silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cassini actually burned up like a meteor 83 minutes earlier as it dove through Saturn\u2019s atmosphere, becoming one with the giant gas planet it set out in 1997 to explore. But it took that long for the news to reach Earth a billion miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only spacecraft to ever orbit Saturn, Cassini showed us the planet, its rings and moons up close in all their splendor. Perhaps most tantalizing, ocean worlds were unveiled on the moons Enceladus and Titan, which could possibly harbor life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dutiful to the end, the Cassini snapped its \u201clast memento photos\u201d Thursday and sampled Saturn\u2019s atmosphere Friday morning as it made its final plunge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Program manager Earl Maize made the official pronouncement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis has been an incredible mission, an incredible spacecraft and you\u2019re all an incredible team,\u201d Maize said. \u201cI\u2019m going to call this the end of mission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Flight controllers wearing matching purple shirts stood and embraced and shook hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 1,500 people, many of them past and present team members, had gathered at California\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for what was described as both a vigil and celebration. Even more congregated at nearby California Institute of Technology, which runs the lab for NASA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NASA\u2019s science mission director, Thomas Zurbuchen, made note of all the tissues inside JPL\u2019s Mission Control, along with the customary lucky peanuts. Team members were clearly emotional, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese worlds that they found, we never knew were there, are changing how we think about life itself,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so for me, that\u2019s why it\u2019s truly a civilization-scale mission, one that will stand out among other missions, anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Project scientist Linda Spilker noted Cassini has been running \u201ca marathon of scientific discovery\u201d for 13 years at Saturn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo we\u2019re here today to cheer as Cassini finishes that race,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The spacecraft tumbled out of control while plummeting at more than 76,000 mph (122,000 kph). Project officials invited ground telescopes to look for Cassini\u2019s last-gasp flash, but weren\u2019t hopeful it would be spotted against the vast backdrop of the solar system\u2019s second biggest planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This Grand Finale, as NASA called it, came about as Cassini\u2019s fuel tank started getting low after 13 years exploring the planet. Scientists wanted to prevent Cassini from crashing into Enceladus or Titan \u2014 and contaminating those pristine worlds. And so in April, Cassini was directed into the previously unexplored gap between Saturn\u2019s cloud tops and the rings. Twenty-two times, Cassini entered the gap and came out again. The last time was last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The leader of Cassini\u2019s imaging team, Carolyn Porco, a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, was so involved with the mission for so long that now, \u201cI consider it the start of life, part two.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cassini departed Earth in 1997 and arrived at the sixth planet from our sun in 2004. The hitchhiking European Huygens landed on big moon Titan in 2005. Nothing from Earth has landed farther. Three other spacecraft previously flew past Saturn, but Cassini was the only one to actually circle the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In all, Cassini collected more than 453,000 images and traveled 4.9 billion miles. It was an international endeavor, with 27 nations taking part. The final price tag was $3.9 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
European space officials joined their U.S. colleagues to bid Cassini farewell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very historical moment,\u201d said the Italian Space Agency\u2019s president, Roberto Battiston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were lighthearted touches as well. During its broadcast NASA played a video clip of the Cassini Virtual Singers, spacecraft team members who belted out, \u201cTonight, tonight, we take the plunge tonight …\u201d to the music from \u201cWest Side Story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scientists are already eager to go back and delve into the wet, wild worlds of Enceladus and Titan. Proposals are under consideration by NASA, but there\u2019s nothing official yet. In the meantime, NASA plans sometime in the 2020s to send an orbiter and lander to Europa, a moon of Jupiter believed to have a global ocean that might be compatible for life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes, we really want to go back\u201d to Saturn, Zurbuchen said. \u201cIt\u2019s such a wonderful system, we don\u2019t want to leave it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft disintegrated in the skies above Saturn early Friday in a final, fateful blaze of cosmic glory, following a remarkable journey of 20 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":67777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":14,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,31,110,14,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1768],"class_list":["post-22007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-it-cloud-report","category-it-networks","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"JFCV5SVJZJD4ZJ35AMFBRIARGU","arc_canonical_url":"\/it-networks\/2017\/09\/15\/nasas-cassini-spacecraft-burns-up-in-skies-over-saturn\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n