Cassini-Huygens is an international collaboration between three space agencies. Seventeen nations contributed to building the spacecraft. The Cassini orbiter was built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Huygens probe was built by the European Space Agency. The Italian Space agency provided Cassini's high-gain communication antenna. More than 250 scientists worldwide will study the data collected.

Launched from Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 15, 1997, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will reach the Saturnian region in July 2004. The mission is composed of two elements: The Cassini orbiter that will orbit Saturn and its moons for four years, and the Huygens probe that will dive into the murky atmosphere of Titan and land on its surface. The sophisticated instruments onboard these spacecraft will provide scientists with vital data to help understand this mysterious, vast region.

During Cassini's planned four-year tour it will orbit Saturn 76 times and execute 52 close encounters with seven of Saturn's 31 known moons. It may discover other moons not yet spotted within Saturn's ring system. But this will be the last close look at Phoebe during the mission.

Cassini Huygens Facts

Primary Mission: Four year tour to study Saturn, it's rings, moons and magnetosphere
Launch: October 15, 1997 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Arrival at Saturn: July 1, 2004 (Eastern time)
Distance Traveled: 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion km)
Huygens probe Titan descent: January 14, 2005

For more information, visit the Cassini-Huygens page at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html