Saturn and its rings and moons hold clues to understanding the origins of our solar system. Cassini will carry a European-built probe, called Huygens which will be sent into Titan's organically-rich, primordial Earth-like atmosphere. Ground-based observations have indicated continents on Titan, as well as oceans or lakes of liquid ethane. What planetary processes might be occurring in such a cold environment are among the questions Cassini and the Huygens probe will address.
The Titan IV/Centaur was retained as the launch vehicle, and the mission was found to be a "world-class reliability effort." The Cassini mission will take the spacecraft into two gravity- assist flybys of Venus, then one each of Earth and Jupiter to give it the needed velocity to reach Saturn and Titan. the planet at an altitude of only one-sixth the diameter of Saturn itself to begin the first of some 60 orbits during the rest of its four-year mission.