Editing Cassini–Huygens (section)

== History ==
[[File:Huygens Systema Saturnium.jpg|thumb|right|Huygens' explanation for the aspects of Saturn, ''Systema Saturnium'' (1659)]][[File:Titan4B on Launch Complex 40.jpg|thumb|right|upright|A [[Titan IV|Titan IV-B]] rocket and [[Centaur (rocket stage)|Centaur-T]] upper stage with the ''Cassini–Huygens'' payload at [[Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40|LC-40]], three days before its 15 October 1997 launch]]

''Cassini–Huygens''{{'}}s origins date to 1982, when the [[European Science Foundation]] and the American [[National Academy of Sciences]] formed a [[working group]] to investigate future cooperative missions. Two European scientists suggested a paired Saturn Orbiter and Titan Probe as a possible joint mission. In 1983, NASA's ''Solar System Exploration Committee'' recommended the same Orbiter and Probe pair as a core NASA project. NASA and the [[European Space Agency]] (ESA) performed a joint study of the potential mission from 1984 to 1985. ESA continued with its own study in 1986, while the American astronaut [[Sally Ride]], in her influential 1987 report ''[[Ride Report|NASA Leadership and America's Future in Space]]'', also examined and approved of the ''Cassini'' mission.<ref name=Ride1987/>

While Ride's report described the Saturn orbiter and probe as a NASA solo mission, in 1988 the Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications of NASA, Len Fisk, returned to the idea of a joint NASA and ESA mission. He wrote to his counterpart at ESA, Roger Bonnet, strongly suggesting that ESA choose the ''Cassini'' mission from the three candidates at hand and promising that NASA would commit to the mission as soon as ESA did.<ref name=Ip_2004/>

At the time, NASA was becoming more sensitive to the strain that had developed between the American and European space programs as a result of European perceptions that NASA had not treated it like an equal during previous collaborations. NASA officials and advisers involved in promoting and planning ''Cassini–Huygens'' attempted to correct this trend by stressing their desire to evenly share any scientific and technology benefits resulting from the mission. In part, this newfound spirit of cooperation with Europe was driven by a sense of competition with the [[Soviet Union]], which had begun to cooperate more closely with Europe as ESA drew further away from NASA. Late in 1988, ESA chose Cassini–Huygens as its next major mission and the following year the program received major funding in the US.{{r|washington1|washington2}}

The collaboration not only improved relations between the two space programs but also helped ''Cassini–Huygens'' survive congressional budget cuts in the United States. ''Cassini–Huygens'' came under fire politically in both 1992 and 1994, but NASA successfully persuaded the [[United States Congress]] that it would be unwise to halt the project after ESA had already poured funds into development because frustration on broken [[space exploration]] promises might spill over into other areas of foreign relations. The project proceeded politically smoothly after 1994, although citizens' groups concerned about the potential environmental impact a launch failure might have (because of its plutonium power source) attempted to derail it through protests and lawsuits until and past its 1997 launch.{{r|NYT-19970908|CNN-19971004|orlando1|NYT-19971012|space.com1}}