Magnificent Cassini mission to Saturn gets two-year extension

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — A US-European exploration of Saturn that has already been lauded as one of the shining achievements in space history is to be extended by two years, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Tuesday.

Quoting sources at NASA, which is the principal funder of the Cassini spacecraft, ESA said the mission's scheduled end of July 2008 had been pushed back by two years.

Cassini is one of the most expensive but most successful robot spacecraft ever built.

It went into orbit around Saturn in 2004 after a seven-year journey spanning 3.5 billion kilometres (2.2 billion miles).

The mission comprises a US-Italian orbiter, Cassini, with 12 instruments on board, and an ESA probe, Huygens, laden with six sensors, which was sent down to the moon of Titan...