Yep, Cassini's 12-year stint at Saturn is still scheduled to end in 2017. And while that's a bummer—Jupiter will be the only outer planet left with a robotic probe—I can't wait to see what Saturn's rings look like from the inside facing out, after Cassini dives closer to the planet than ever before.

Anyway, on to 2017 space news that I'll be watching in my reporting domain.

International Space Station

There are five ISS crew expeditions scheduled for 2017, consisting of 16 astronauts from four space agencies. Seven crew members will be from Roscosmos, six come from NASA, two from ESA and one from JAXA. Russia recently announced they were lowering their crew complement from three to two; that change goes into effect in March. This, combined with the loss of a Progress cargo ship, and uncertainty surrounding SpaceX's return-to-flight plans, makes the ISS schedule a bit fluid.

I compiled the Expeditions chart below from multiple sources; things seem to get fuzzy in the second half of the year and I had to estimate a little.