Cassini sends back beautiful images of Saturnian moons

Tethys

Daphnis - the wave maker

Mimas - the Death Star

Pandora

Prometheus

For over 12 years, the Cassini spacecraft has been orbiting Saturn, studying its moons, its rings and its atmosphere.  It is sending back some beautiful pictures of Saturnian moons.  It is scheduled to be destroyed by sending it into Saturn's atmosphere to avoid contamination of the moons.  (Huygens didn't contaminate Titan?).

Voyager 1 flies by Saturn in 1980

Voyager 1, the second spacecraft sent to study Saturn (the first being Pioneer 11), passed by the gas giant on November 12, 1980.  Launched on September 5, 1977 (my birthday!), it took advantage of a rare planetary alignment and used gravity to swing by one planet (Jupiter) to the next without a large propulsion system.

Voyager 1 found three new Saturnine moons (Prometheus, Pandora and Atlas), hundreds of new rings and a thick atmosphere on Titan.

In August 2012, Voyager entered interstellar space, making it the most distant human-made object in space.  It carries a gold record that contains 115 analog images, greetings in 55 languages, 35 natural and man-made sounds and portions of 27 musical pieces. 

Voyager 1 should operate until 2020 and send back data to Earth periodically.