Cassini/Huygens mission. Computer artwork of the route taken by the Cassini/Huygens spacecraft on its mission to Saturn (at top right), showing the points at which it performs slingshot manoeuvres. During each slingshot manoeuvre, Cassini/Huygens passes close to a planet so that its gravity can be used to increase the spacecraft's velocity. The spacecraft's trajectory appears as a red line, whilst the orbits of the planets are blue. After its launch from Earth (green) on 6 October 1997, the spacecraft will fly past Venus (yellow) on 21 April 1998, Earth on 16 August 1999, Venus again on 20 June 1999, Jupiter (large yellow) on 30 December 2000, to arrive at Saturn on 1 July 2004.