I’ve always loved Saturn. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was its magical rings or the fact it was unique among all the planets in my first grade universe. I wanted to live on Saturn. I even drew a self portrait of me on the planet with my black castle house, which looked more like the Washington Monument, behind me. It seemed I only liked four other planets in my young universe. Jupiter with its big red dot, Earth the blue planet, something smaller and purple, maybe Uranus? And then little Pluto, which has since been downgraded from planet status.  Today – Stardate: Sept. 15, 2017 – Cassini has burned up into Saturn’s atmosphere. I reflected on its mission with a sense of realization. As part of the mission, NASA took names submitted by Earthlings and sent then into space aboard Cassini to Saturn in 1997.  Because NASA originally promised “… the disk will reside in Saturn’s orbit centuries after the primary mission is completed…” my husband Ray, who at the time was a Space Analyst, wanted to submit our names to live in Saturn’s realm. He sent our names and our three Norwegian Elkhound dogs at the time, Roxanne, Bruno, and Basia to NASA to be blasted off into space on a high-technology disk to Saturn. Now, more than 30 years after my Saturn self-portrait, I guess I got my wish after all when this disk carrying my name hurdled toward the planet with its magical rings and  burned brightly to all who might live on Saturn.

Names on Cassini