Emmy win makes for a stellar night for JPL

Nearly a year after the end of the Cassini mission — which spent about 20 years in space and 13 years giving us a closer look at Saturn — members of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory offices have something new to celebrate: a Creative Arts Emmy win.

Presented on Saturday, the Outstanding Original Interactive Program Emmy was awarded to JPL for its multi-month digital campaign of the Cassini mission’s grand finale up to the mission’s “death” on Sept. 15, 2017.

“The Cassini team is tremendously grateful that our mission’s amazing story was told in such a creative way by the communications team at JPL, and that the TV Academy has chosen to honor that story. Receiving an Emmy is one more amazing first for Cassini,” said Cassini Project Manager Earl Maize.

The campaign included updates across social media platforms, web and television broadcasts featuring Q&A sessions, a film to explain the mission’s story, 360-degree videos including a livestream from inside mission control, educational materials and software to provide up-to-the-minute tracking of the spacecraft, according to a press release.

“Thank you to space fans, if you’re a current space fan or future space fan,” said Veronica McGregor, manager of JPL’s Media Relations Office. “We can’t fit you all into mission control but we can give you a virtual seat and we can put you at Saturn and we can put you at Mars.”