HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO REACH SATURN?

 

Space travel is rarely a matter of moving in a straight line. Spacecraft often take advantage of planets, moons, and even the sun to gain speed with the use of little fuel. As such, older missions may have taken less time to reach outer planets than those with more modern propulsion systems.

Pioneer 11 took the first look at Saturn. Launched in April 1973, the craft passed Saturn over six years later, in September 1979.

The Voyager spacecrafts took advantage of an optimal lineup to explore the outer planets. Launched in September 1977, Voyager 1 used a gravitational assist from Jupiter to swing by Saturn in November 1980, only three years after leaving Earth. Although Voyager 2 launched a month earlier than its twin, it took a longer, more circular route and arrived in August 1981, taking a full four years to reach Saturn.

The Cassini mission, which left Earth in October 1997, twice used Venus for gravitational assists, slingshoting off of the cloudy planet. It also made a flyby of Jupiter, imaging the gas giant as it passed by. After almost seven years, the craft entered orbit around Saturn in July 2004, where it intends to study the planet until at least 2017. Among other things, the mission has studied lightning in Saturn's atmosphere.

The New Horizons mission, headed to the dwarf planet Pluto, launched in January 2006. Traveling at the fastest launch speed to date, it passed by Mars and Jupiter, then skimmed by Saturn in June 2008, taking only a year and a half to reach the ringed giant.

As you can see, the question of how long it takes to reach Saturn depends significantly on the path selected for the mission, as much if not more than the speed of the spacecraft itself.