Posted: Sat, Dec 25, 2004, 1:50 PM ET (1850 GMT)
The European-built Huygens probe separated from the Cassini spacecraft Friday night on a trajectory towards Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Huygens separated from Cassini at 9 pm EST Friday night (0200 GMT Saturday); signals from Cassini confirming the successful deployment arrived at Earth just over an hour later. The separation took place as planned and Huygens appears to be in good condition. Huygens, built by ESA and carried on Cassini since its launch in 1997, is on a trajectory that will take it into the atmosphere of Titan on January 14. The spacecraft will transmit data about Titan's atmosphere to Cassini during its descent and, possibly, after landing on the moon's surface. Cassini will perform a maneuver on December 28 to place the spacecraft on a flyby trajectory past Titan during Huygens' descent.

Related Links:

•  BBC article
•  Reuters article
•  AP article
•  NASA/JPL Cassini mission status report
•  ESA press release