Cassini's voyage ends in blaze of glory

The Spacecraft Cassini burned up in Saturn's atmosphere this morning. That's according to Earth time. Cassini was launched in 1997, reached Saturn in 2004 and lasted 10 years longer than anybody expected. Project Manager Earl Maize delivered the obituary at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "This has been an incredible mission, an incredible spacecraft, and you're all an incredible team. I'm going to call this the end of mission. Project Manager off the net."

NPR's Science Correspondent Joe Palca was at JPL as Cassini's mission ended.

Photo: NASA/Joel Kowsky