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2017_EJRNL_PP_ALEXANDRA_WITZE_6.pdf
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Twenty years ago, in the wee hours of a muggy Florida morning, the Cassini spacecraft lit up the skies as it blasted off from Cape Canaveral. Now, after a 3.5-billion-kilometre journey and 13 years spent circling Saturn, the orbiter is running low on fuel. On 15 September, Cassini’s controllers on Earth will send the craft plunging into Saturn’s cloudtops to prevent it from accidentally crashing into and contaminating any moon that might be able to harbour life.