Heat shield on the ESAs (European Space Agency) Cassini-Huygens spacecraft. The Cassini-Huygens mission was a joint project between NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the ESA and the ASI (Italian Space Agency). It was launched from Earth in 1997 took 7 years to reach Saturn and its moons. The Huygens probe, attached to the Cassini orbiter, was equipped with a heat shield, consisting of 160 insulating silica tiles. On 25th December 2004, the probe separated from Cassini and descended to the surface of Saturns largest moon, Titan, in early 2005. The heat shield was designed to protect the instruments on board during entry into Titans atmosphere, which involved heating up its surface to 1800-2000 degrees Celsius. However, the instruments protected by the shield did not go beyond 150 degrees Celsius.