In the aerospace context, Cassini refers to a spacecraft that was launched by NASA, in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), to study the planet Saturn and its system, including its rings, moons, and magnetosphere. The mission was named after the Italian-French astronomer Giovanni Cassini, who discovered four of Saturn's moons and the division now known as the Cassini Division in Saturn's rings.
The Cassini spacecraft was launched in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004, where it conducted a four-year mission to study the planet and its system.
Cassini conducted several flybys of Saturn's moons, including Titan, Enceladus, and Iapetus, and made detailed observations of Saturn's rings, atmosphere, and magnetic field. Cassini also conducted several joint observations with the Huygens probe, which was deployed to land on Titan in 2005.
The spacecraft's mission was extended several times, and it continued to make new discoveries until 2017 when it was commanded to dive into Saturn's atmosphere, thus ending its mission. The spacecraft provided a wealth of scientific data and images that have helped to increase our understanding of Saturn and its system, including the discovery of liquid water and potential habitability of some of its moons.
Cassini mission is considered as one of the most successful and scientifically rich planetary missions in history. It has revealed a great deal about Saturn, its rings and its many moons, including Enceladus, with its subsurface ocean and geysers of water vapor and ice, and Titan, with its thick atmosphere and methane-based weather.