Cassini crashes into Saturn ending its 20 year mission

NASA's Cassini spacecraft crashed into Saturn this morning ending twenty year mission to conduct scientific experiments centered around Saturn's unusual rings and nearby moons. Cassini flight director, Julie Webster, called loss of signal from the spacecraft around 5 A.M. pacific time. Call loss of signal at one one five five four six [MUSIC] For the [UNKNOWN] that would be the end of the spacecraft. The [UNKNOWN] program director Earl Maize congratulated the team on their great success with the mission. Signal from the spacecraft is going out within the next 45 seconds. So will be, so will be the spacecraft. I hope you're all As deeply proud of this amazing accomplishment. Congratulations to you all. This has been an incredible mission, an incredible spacecraft, and you're all an incredible team. I'm gonna call this the end of mission, project manager off the net. [APPLAUSE] Cassini was launched in 1997 and traveled to Saturn, arriving in 2004 It brought with it the Huygens probe which was dropped on the Saturn's massive moon of Titan. Cassini also studied the nearby moon of Enceladus and recently flew through the gap between Saturn's rings and the planet itself. The Cassini was crashed into Saturn to avoid contaminating Saturn's nearby moons, which both contained liquid oceans. Read more about the Cassini mission at CNET. COM. [MUSIC]