The only radio antenna that can command the 43-year-old spacecraft has been offline since March as it gets new hardware, but work is on track to wrap up in February.
MORE ›
On Oct. 15, 1997, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft started its seven-year journey to Saturn from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The spacecraft arrived at Saturn in 2004, and delivered the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe to Titan in early 2005. The RTG-powered spacecraft rewrote the textbook on Saturn and Titan, and transformed our view of the solar system. Cassini completed its mission in 2017.
MORE ›
Launched on Oct. 6, 1990, from the cargo bay of Space Shuttle Discovery, Ulysses was a joint mission between NASA and ESA designed to study the heliosphere. An RTG kept it going on its unusual orbit over the poles of the Sun, out to Jupiter, and back, for 18 years, during which Ulysses provided valuable insights on solar wind and solar magnetic field at the Sun’s poles.
MORE ›
Like the famed astronomer for whom it was named, the RTG-powered Galileo spacecraft logged quite a few firsts during its 14-year mission to Jupiter, including finding evidence for liquid water oceans under the moon Europa's icy surface.
MORE on GALILEO ›
On Oct. 28, 1993, as the RTG-powered Galileo spacecraft was approaching Jupiter, it snapped images of the asteroid Ida. While analyzing the images five months later, scientists noticed a small moon orbiting the asteroid, the first observation of an asteroid with a satellite.
MORE ›
For more than five decades, radioisotope power systems have played a critical role in the exploration of space, enabling missions of scientific discovery to destinations across the solar system.
› More
For more than five decades, radioisotope power systems have played a critical role in the exploration of space, enabling missions of scientific discovery to destinations across the solar system.
› More
