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NASA's Cassini spacecraft is giving earthlings their closest-ever views of Saturn's swirled atmosphere and its massive hurricane, beaming a trove of images and data back to Earth after the craft made its first dive between Saturn and its rings Wednesday.

Cassini is "showing us new wonders and demonstrating where our curiosity can take us if we dare," 

 director of NASA's Planetary Science Division.

Cassini captured the images over the past 24 hours -- but it couldn't send them back to Earth until early Thursday, because the craft was using its 13-feet-wide antenna as a deflector shield to protect it from ice and rock particles. Right on schedule, the craft made contact with NASA's Deep Space Network at the Goldstone Complex in California's Mojave Desert 

"No spacecraft has ever been this close to Saturn before. 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," said Cassini Project Manager Earl Maize of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

All went according to the plan, Maize said, adding that after its dive, the craft that's now been in space for nearly 20 years "has come out the other side in excellent shape."

 Cassini has now begun what NASA calls its Grand Finale, as it weaves its way between Saturn and its rings in a series of 22 dives that will culminate in what the agency describes as "a science-rich plunge into Saturn's atmosphere on Sept. 15."

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The spacecraft is "showing us new wonders and demonstrating where our curiosity can take us if we dare," NASA's planetary science director says.

Cassini craft beams closest images ever taken of Saturn

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