As scientists and fans of space exploration around the world watched the final minutes of the Cassini space mission to Saturn yesterday, some members of staff in Swindon were watching the end of two decades’ work.

The UK Space Agency managed a number of high-tech scientific instruments on the craft, which were used to explore Saturn’s moons – including two which it is thought may have the required conditions to support life.

At 12.55pm, staff gathered in the canteen of their Polaris House headquarters to see the craft’s final moments, nearly 20 years after it was first launched into space.

Rosemary Young, the science programme manager for the mission, said: “I’ve been involved in the mission since just before launch in 1997, and it took about 7 years to arrive at the Saturnian system.

“The mission was extended, and as a result has been operating for nearly 20 years. If you think that the technology was 20-30 years old, the results were inspirational.”

The craft, which was beginning to run out of fuel, was intentionally destroyed in the hydrogen and helium which makes up Saturn’s atmosphere, after NASA decided it shouldn’t be allowed to continue to travel uncontrolled between the planet and its moons.

Asked about what it was like to see something which has occupied her for so long be destroyed, Rosemary said: “It was a little strange, as it’s become a part of my working life, and it was the end of an era.

“At the same time, it was the best way to end it. It has far excelled what it originally planned to do.

“We didn’t get any images of the final moments, they were just receiving data today. There’s also the knowledge that the data takes about 83 minutes to get to us, so by the time we knew about it, it had already gone. But it was quite a moment.”

Among the moons which the agency’s instruments explored were two which it is thought could potentially harbour life.

Rosemary said: “Titan has these murky clouds of ethane and methane, and we found that there was a hard surface below it, a little bit like something you see on Earth. There’s a possibility of life on that.

“The Cassini mission continued onto the moon Enceladus, which is a sort of icy looking world. It had some cracks with fissures and jets coming out. Again, it was a possible place to find the elements of life.”