Cassini began its dip on Wednesday night (AEST) but could not make contact for almost 24 hours while its antenna was facing away from Earth.
The spacecraft’s big dish antenna served as a shield as it hurtled through the narrow gap, temporarily cutting off communications.
Scientists were jubilant when the probe sent its first signals yesterday afternoon — proving it had survived — accompanied by the first raw images.
Scientists say the pictures show details never seen before, including a gigantic swirling hurricane at Saturn’s north pole.
“In the grandest tradition of exploration, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has once again blazed a trail, showing us new wonders and demonstrating where our curiosity can take us if we dare,” NASA’s planetary science director Jim Green said.
“We are just ecstatic,” project science engineer Jo Pitesky said. “Saturn continues to surprise us.”
During its dive, Cassini skimmed about 3,000 kilometres above Saturn’s cloud tops, closer than ever before, and within 300km of the innermost visible edges of its rings, NASA said.
Cassini project manager Earl Maize said extra precautions were taken for the historic mission.
“No spacecraft has ever been this close to Saturn before,” he said.
“We could only rely on predictions, based on our experience with Saturn’s other rings, of what we thought this gap between the rings and Saturn would be like.”
He said Cassini had “shot through the gap just as we planned and has come out the other side in excellent shape”.
The probe will now repeat the dive another 21 times — one per week until its mission end date in September.
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