NASA has chosen a name for the final phase of Cassini's mission to Saturn, out of over 2,000 public submissions: "Grand Finale".
The U.S. space agency announced that they were collecting name suggestions for these missions in April 2014. The voting began April 10 and finalized on April 25. Some of the team members also submitted their ideas, but suggestions from the public were mainly considered.
"We chose a name for this mission phase that would reflect the exciting journey ahead while acknowledging that it's a big finish for what has been a truly great show," stated Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
On June 18, Cassini, NASA's spacecraft that gathers observations about Saturn, made a close flyby Saturn's moon, Titan, to glean data on its atmospheric conditions as well as its surface, which some experts say could hold water. Cassini was also used to discover a possible underground reservoir on another one of Saturn's moons, the Enceladus. In 2005, the spacecraft observed water vapor and some ice were being ejected from Enceladus' vents.
Cassini visited Enceladus 19 times, in which it performed three flybys. During these missions, NASA changed the spacecraft's speed and trajectory in order to get a good view of the land bodies of Enceladus.
The final mission for the spacecraft will be to orbit the Ringed Planet on very close distances. In 2016, NASA will begin directing the spacecraft to dangerous orbits to come up with up-close data on the planet's surface. Cassini will climb over Saturn's North Pole, then fly just a little over the planet's F ring.
Since the spacecraft will assume orbits very close to Saturn, NASA initially called this mission, "the proximal orbits."
