NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA's Cassini
Early this morning, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will be ending its mission and crashing into Saturn. Although images of the crash won’t be available, you can watch NASA officials as they share the craft’s last moments and react to what happens live in the stream above, provided by NASA. The stream above will be the official livestream for the Cassini mission’s final moments.
The live stream above, from NASA’s public education channel, will start broadcasting at 7 a.m. Eastern. NASA expects the last signal to arrive around 7:56 a.m. Eastern. Prior to 7 a.m., you will either see a static image as the livestream waits to begin or you will see a different broadcast from NASA.
The live stream below may also provide a look at the Cassini spacecraft’s mission, including live commentary from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. At 9:30 a.m. Eastern, the stream below will include a post-mission news conference from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This may turn into a live stream at the times that the broadcasts begin.
If the stream above doesn’t give anything different from our first live stream, you can also review NASA’s JPL Live channel here.
The live stream below may also have different feeds than the first live stream. From 7 to 8:30 a.m. Eastern, the feed below should have an uninterrupted, clean feed of cameras from JPL Mission Control, with mission audio only. Before that time, it will feature streams of other events from NASA:
This morning, Cassini is plunging into Saturn’s atmosphere, ending its nearly 20 year mission. It was launched in 1997 and began orbiting Saturn in 2004, studying the planet, its rings, moons, and atmosphere. In April, Cassini began the final phase of its mission, doing 22 dives between the planet and its rings. As it plunges into Saturn today, the craft will send data back about the upper atmosphere during its descent.