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"You always have the thought of, is this going
to work?

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You're sending a spacecraft millions and millions
of miles away.

3
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It's mind-boggling the technology required
to pull that off."

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And NASA did pull it off, with the launch
of an unprecedented mission to the outskirts

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of our solar system.

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NASA's Cassini spacecraft arrived in Florida
on April 21st, 1997, to begin months of processing

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before its launch in October to the distant
planet Saturn.

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Cassini’s mission was daring: go into orbit
around the ringed planet, send the most detailed

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readings - and best pictures ever taken - back
to Earth.

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Deploy a probe to the moon Titan, survey Saturn's
other dozens of moons, and dive between the

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rings.

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"The size of it was impressive.

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To consider the size and how far it was going
and that it included a probe.

14
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That was impressive to me."

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But before it could set new landmarks for
science in space, Cassini had to make it safely

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off Earth riding atop an Air Force Titan IVB
rocket.

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Going to Saturn, where the sun is too distant
to feed solar panels enough energy for the

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spacecraft, Cassini would rely instead on
a plutonium-fueled generator called an RTG.

19
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"You had these RTG or nuclear sources that
you were going to mount up to the bottom,

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so the problem of maintaining everything cool,
you know, with these nuclear heaters, seeing

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that all come together for me was eye opening,
and it was a whole new ball game."

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Launch day would be the major test of the
team that made Cassini ready for space.

23
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"When it came down to October 15th and that
thing was launched, everybody breathed a sigh

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of relief, and just exhaled and relish in
it."

25
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"The team had worked for years on it.

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When it all came off, it was just very, very
satisfying that all these years of effort,