Cassini ends its 20-year mission to Saturn with cheers, and even a few tears
LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif. - They clapped, though they didn't smile.
But what did you expect? Cassini, their beloved spacecraft, was dead.
Confirmation that the explorer had indeed vaporized as planned in the cloud tops of Saturn was received at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory just before 5 a.m. PDT Friday.
"The signal from the spacecraft is gone, and in the next 45 seconds, so will be the spacecraft," Earl Maize, Cassini's program manager, told the two dozen people in the mission control room in La Canada Flintridge. "Congratulations to all of you. It has
