Cassini spacecraft completes death plunge into Saturn: NASA

Tampa - 15 September 2017: NASA's $3.9 billion Cassini spacecraft completed its death plunge into Saturn on Friday, ending a fruitful 20-year mission to explore one of the solar system's most intriguing outer planets.

"The signal from the spacecraft is gone," said Earl Maize, Cassini mission manager, as the unmanned orbiter ran out of fuel and disintegrated in Saturn's atmosphere, as planned, in order to avoid damaging the planet's moons.