My second favorite thing about Cassini (the actual telemetry is first) was Oleg Cassini trying to claim exclusive rights to the name.
He lost (ahahahahahaha!).
Ha! I hadn’t heard that before, but just found an old article about it online:
George Alexander of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports that attorneys for Oleg Cassini phoned, saying how dare JPL put the fashion designer’s name on its Saturn probe without permission.
JPL’s lawyers replied that the Cassini spacecraft was named for Jean Dominique Cassini, an 18th century astronomer.
“There was a long silence on the other end of the phone,” Alexander said, "followed by an ‘Oh.’ "
Voyager 2. I think it’s one of the greatest achievements of the human race so far.
The Soviet Almazgets my vote: A for-real manned spy sattelite. Three guys in a space station, looking at Earth through telescopes for interesting stuff to photograph, then developing the film on board and bringing it back with resupply vehicles. Spacecraft would ferry replacement crews and supplies back and forth; each crew could stay on board for a month or more.
And just for good measure they bolted a 23mm cannon to the thing. In case they were attacked by American Apollo spacecraft…
The system saw very little use as unmanned satellites proved capable of doing the spying (a similar US program was scrapped before it launched), but derivatives of the Almaz spacecraft designs are used to this day.
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Cassini - Enceladus is my favourite body in the solar system (insert joke here), and Cassini has taught us so much about it. Also, those pictures of the earth framed by Saturn’s rings are so beautiful.
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Hubble. Possibly most fruitful science mission in space ever.
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Except for Kepler. Although its mission has been cut short, it’s still transformed our understanding of how prevalent planets are in the galaxy and how different solar systems can be.
I always had a soft spot for the Shuttle. It seemed modern, wasn’t shaped like a penis and maybe gave a glimpse of the future before it happened. Or maybe the film Moonraker influenced my young mind too much? I still think taking a girl on a date on the Shuttle would show you are much more sophisticated than if you used a regular penis shaped space craft?
The Skynet satellites, for the name alone. They’re a series of British military sats which have been in orbit since 1974 (after three failed attempts).
The Saturn V also…it’s still an amazing piece of tech, although the material science of the time meant it was hideously expensive. Still, a thoroughly modernised version of it’s F-1 engine (the F-1B) is being proposed for use with the SLS as a booster…far cheaper and with 15% more thrust, using things like laser etching and 3D metal printing for manufacturing.