Twenty-eight years ago today, on October 15, 1997 (September 14, 1997 lunar calendar), the US Cassini spacecraft Saturn probe was launched. The US Cassini spacecraft, the US Cassini spacecraft, is an interplanetary probe developed by NASA. From October 15, 1997 to October 2012, the interplanetary probe has flown more than 3.80 billion miles (about 6.10 billion kilometers), enough to circle the earth 152,000 times, and has sent back about 444GB of scientific observations to the earth, including more than 300,000 pictures. The mission of the Cassini spacecraft is to visit more than 12 Saturn moons (Saturn has more than 60 moons in total), and sometimes to observe the polar regions of Saturn and its moons. Mission planners must take into account factors such as the attractive force of Saturn's moons and limited fuel supplies. The Cassini spacecraft's annual observation missions are within budget and rarely have problems. Although it is entering middle age, it still performs well. Achievements By October 2012, the probe had observed Saturn, its rings and moons for eight years. About 444GB of scientific observations were returned to Earth, including more than 300,000 images. Based on Cassini's observations, researchers have published more than 2,500 papers and reports in scientific journals, covering the discovery of water ice and organic particles spewing from Enceladus, the first observations of hydrocarbon lakes on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, atmospheric upheavals discovered by observations of a rare giant storm on Saturn, and many other interesting phenomena. The Cassini spacecraft has made the most in-depth observations of a giant planet, and the flight orbit is also the most complex auxiliary orbit of attractive forces. Each flyby of "Titan" is like threading a needle. By 2012, there had been 87 flybys, with precision control of about 1 mile (about 1.6 kilometers), all of which were carried out on Earth about 1 billion miles (about 1.50 billion kilometers) from Cassini. Ending November 2016, Cassini will begin a series of orbital maneuvers to move closer to Saturn. These maneuvers will begin outside the F ring (the outermost main ring of Earth). In April 2017, the last close encounter with Titan will send Cassini into orbit over Saturn's innermost ring. After 22 close flybys, the gravitational perturbation of the last encounter with distant Titan will bring Cassini closer to Saturn. On September 15, 2017, after entering Saturn's atmosphere, the probe will crash to the surface of Saturn and eventually evaporate under pressure and heat.