Spacecraft to Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
Spacecraft have successfully travelled to Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
So far, four spacecraft have gone to Saturn as listed in the table below. Voyager 2 also went to Uranus and Neptune.
Voyager 1 was a fly by mission and its closest approach to Saturn was on 1980 November 12 at a distance of 184,300 km from the planet’s centre.
| SPACECRAFT | LAUNCH DATE | LAUNCH VEHICLE | MISSION |
| Pioneer 11 | 1973 April 6 | Atlas Centaur | To explore the asteroid belt, Jupiter and Saturn. Flyby mission of Saturn with closest approach on 1979 September 1, at an altitude of 21,000 km above the planet’s cloud tops. |
| Voyager 1 | 1977 September 5 | ||
| Voyager 2 | 1977 August 20 | Titan IIIE/Centaur | To explore Jupiter and Saturn and then targeted to Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 2 was a fly by mission and its closest approach to Saturn was on 1981 August 26 at a distance of 101,000 km from the planet’s centre. It flew past Uranus on 1986 January 24 at a distance of 81,500 km above the planet’s cloud tops. It flew past Neptune on 1989 August 25 at a distance of 4,950 km above the planet’s cloud tops |
| Cassini‑Huygens | 1997 October 15 | Titan IVB/Centaur | Orbiter mission to study Saturn plus launching the Huygens probe to land on the planet’s largest satellite, Titan. Entered orbit on 2004 July 1. De-orbited into Saturn’s atmosphere on 2017 September 15. |
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