The Kuiper Belt is about 40 AU distance from the sun (45-48 AUs).

[Why not send it to another planet while you are at it? The Kuiper
Belt will be getting attention in a few years anyway from a probe
designed to explore that region of space.]

I know, it was a spur of the moment thought. I was thinking that if NASA wanted to send Cassini off to the wild blue yonder, why not the Kuiper Belt instead of THROUGH a geiser of Saturn's moon. A mad moment on my part, sorry.

[It wouldn't surprise me if NASA was trying to bump off the probe to
make room for the next crop of new space probes coming along.]

That's what made me mad and I agre with you. They really should take this opportunity to study the plume's origin, maybe even take a movie or two as Cassini did when it visited Jupiter, but to make Cassini go through the plume just doesn't seem logical to me. There's more science to do at Saturn and maybe even given the chance, Uranus and the distant Neptune. I know, wishful thinking, but probes that are still working shouldn't just be trashed and it sure seems that they're sending Cassini on an even more blind adventure by going through a plume. Thank goodness Cassini made it through Saturns' rings during aerobraking towards Saturn's first encounter.

Anyways.