Venus and earth have disappeared astern, and even Jupiter is now a fading dot of red and orange. Only Saturn lies ahead. The ringed planet and its strange collection of moons will be the final destination for a huge traveling space laboratory called Cassini. There, the biggest, the best, and the last of America's superships to the outer planets will settle in to complete a long decade's work. Cassini's herculean mission begins this month with its launch from Cape Canaveral aboard a Titan 4B Centaur rocket. It won't end until 2008, or later. By thren, the chore of exploring our solar system will have been turned over to smaller explorers, midgets by comparison with the big ship named for the Italian-French astronomer who discovered four of Saturn's moons.
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