Dec 2 1987
From The Space Library
NASA announced that the long-delayed mission to Jupiter, originally scheduled for 1982, would be launched in 1989. The 5,870-pound untended Galileo spacecraft was to be launched from the Shuttle Discovery. After the Challenger accident, NASA decided to use less powerful rockets than the originally planned Centaur rockets, which are fueled with volative hydrogen. The substitution required an "audacious" rerouting of the space-craft in order to use the gravitational force of Venus and Earth to propel Galileo toward Jupiter.
The Galileo mission was expected to reach Jupiter in 1995. Upon reaching Jupiter, the spacecraft was to release a 737-pound probe that would penetrate the atmosphere of the giant gaseous planet. In addition, the spacecraft was to spend two years orbiting Jupiter and making flybys of its four largest moons. (CSM, Dec 3/87; LA Times, Dec 3/87; USA Today, Dec 3/87; W Post, Dec 3/87)
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