10, 1990, at altitude of 10,000 miles (about 16,000 kilometers)Įarth flybys: Dec. 18, 1989 from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., aboard space shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-34 Despite the fact that the spacecraft was millions of miles away in deep space, the fixes worked, and most of the mission’s planned observations were carried out. Despite exhaustive efforts to free the ribs, the antenna would not deploy.įrom 1993 to 1996, extensive new flight and ground software was developed, and ground stations of NASA's Deep Space Network were enhanced in order to perform the mission using the spacecraft's low-gain antennas. When the spacecraft’s main antenna failed to deploy as planned, a special team performed extensive tests and determined that a few (probably three) of the antenna's 18 ribs were held by friction in the closed position. The Galileo mission is also an example of innovative problem solving. It also gave scientists the most detailed look yet at the structure of the planet’s magnetic field and radiation belts. Galileo data allowed the creation of the first detailed maps of Jupiter’s major moons. During its 58-minute life, the probe penetrated 124 miles (200 kilometers) into Jupiter's violent atmosphere before it was crushed, melted and/or vaporized by the intense pressure and temperature. The probe measured temperature, pressure, chemical composition, cloud characteristics, sunlight and energy internal to the planet, and lightning. The orbiter carried a small probe that became the first to sample the atmosphere of a gas planet. Among its discoveries: an intense radiation belt above Jupiter's cloud tops, helium in about the same concentration as the Sun, extensive and rapid resurfacing of the moon Io because of volcanism and a magnetic field at Ganymede. The Galileo spacecraft logged quite a few other firsts during its 14-year mission to Jupiter. It provided the only direct observations of a comet colliding with a planet, when it witnessed Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact Jupiter. The spacecraft was the first to fly past an asteroid, Gaspra, and the first to discover a moon of an asteroid, tiny Dactyl orbiting Ida. 21, 2003, it was being deliberately destroyed to protect one of its own discoveries-a possible ocean beneath the icy crust of the moon Europa. When the spacecraft plunged into Jupiter's crushing atmosphere on Sept. Galileo changed the way we look at our solar system. To accomplish this, the Galileo orbiter carried 10 science instruments, along with a descent probe that it released directly into Jupiter’s atmosphere. Like the famed astronomer for which it was named, Galileo would study the King of Planets over an extended period, in finer detail than was ever possible before. Four spacecraft (Pioneer 10 & 11, then Voyager 1 & 2) had previously flown by the Jupiter system, but the Galileo mission was the first to enter orbit around the planet.
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