I got up this morning to watch the live feed from JPL as the Cassini spacecraft tumbled into Saturn's atmosphere. Cassini's thruster stabilization switched to high gain as it struggled to point its antenna to Earth. A minute passed. Then the last blip on the radio spectrum was gone,
Screen Shot 2017-09-15 at 4.54.27 AM. enlarge
I can remember working out the calculations for what would be required to send just such a signal from that far away. I'm guessing most of the folks in the picture above were doing the same math at the same time. Math works.
Screen Shot 2017-09-15 at 4.54.35 AM. enlarge
Last update: Cassini has completed its mission at Saturn. As predicted, the spacecraft lost contact with Earth at 4:55 a.m. PDT. jpl 