Exactly 15 years ago, on October 15, 1997, NASA's Cassini spacecraft lifted off from Earth and left our atmosphere.
Since that day the space probe has traveled more than 3.8 billion miles and sent back more than 300,000 images. Cassini is still going strong with plans to keep on keepin' on until 2017.
During its travels, Cassini has swung around Venus twice, checked out Earth from space, and slipped by Jupiter on its way to Saturn, where the probe will end its trip in 2017.
See some of the 300,000 images Cassini has beamed back >
For the past eight years Cassini has been exploring Saturn, its rings, and several of its moons.
From its observations, NASA has discovered some of Saturn's moons contain ice, organic particles, and lakes full of hydrocarbons. The probe has even sent back images of these amazing landscapes.
In November 2016, Cassini will begin a series of orbits that will get it ever closer to Saturn, and by Sept. 15, 2017, Cassini will enter Saturn's atmosphere, sending back the closest images of Saturn ever taken before the pressure and temperature of the gas giant's atmosphere destroys the probe.
A portrait of Jupiter from 6.2 million miles away composed of 27 images.
The first high-resolution images of Saturn's moon Lapetus showing its geologic structures.
Clouds over Saturn's moon Titan, seen by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer in 2006.
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