Watch Cassini’s Saturn dive live with mission control

as seen by Cassini in 2013. Earth can be seen as a few bright pixels below the right hand side of the rings.
as seen by Cassini in 2013. Earth can be seen as a few bright pixels below the right hand side of the rings.
September 15, 2017
Michael Lucy

Michael Lucy
Saturn backlit by the sun, as seen by cassini in 2013. Earth can be seen as a few bright pixels below the right hand side of the rings.
Saturn backlit by the Sun, as seen by Cassini in 2013. Earth can be seen as a few bright pixels below the right hand side of the rings.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI

Just before 10:00pm (AEST) this evening, 15 September 2017, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will end its 20-year mission of discovery as a fireball screaming through the skies of Saturn.

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Since leaving Earth in October 1997, Cassini has seen Saturn and its rings up close, landed a probe on the icy crust of Titan, detected water spraying from the cryovolcanoes of Enceladus, and changed our understanding of the Solar System.

You can watch Cassini’s final act along with NASA scientists in the live stream from mission control below. The live broadcast will begin at 9 pm AEST (11am GMT, 7am EDT). 

It’s expected that the signal from Cassini will cut out around 55 minutes later as the probe begins to burn up as it descends into the atmosphere. The spectacular flame-out is to ensure that no terrestrial life – in the form of possible stowaway microbes and the like – stands a chance of contaminating Saturn or its moons.

It takes about 80 minutes for signals to reach Earth from Saturn. By the time the broadcast starts, Cassini will already be gone.

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