Sep 21 2003
From The Space Library
NASA's Galileo mission ended when the Galileo spacecraft disintegrated in Jupiter's atmosphere. NASA had managed the course of the craft's demise to prevent its becoming uncontrollable once it had depleted its propellant. Galileo had launched from Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1989, following multiyear delays~originally, NASA had planned for the craft to launch in 1982 aboard a Centaur rocket. The probe had made significant contributions to scientists' knowledge of Jupiter and its moons, including collecting evidence of the possibility of life on Europa. Galileo had outlasted its prime mission by six years, despite enduring numerous technical problems and more than four times the amount of radiation that engineers had designed the spacecraft to withstand. (NASA JPL, “Galileo End of Mission Status,” news release, 21 September 2003, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=129 (accessed 2 February 2009); Usha Lee McFarling, “Stalwart Galileo Is Vaporized near Jupiter,” Los Angeles Times, 22 September 2003.
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