The Galileo spacecraft was designed to study Jupiter's atmosphere, satellites, and surrounding magnetosphere for two years. The spacecraft was named in honor of Galileo Galilei, the Italian Renaissance scientist who discovered Jupiter's major moons in 1610. The Galileo spacecraft was carried into space by the shuttle Atlantis on October 18, 1989. Once released from the cargo bay, a two stage Inertial Upper Stage booster fired to accelerate the spacecraft out of Earth orbit toward the planet Venus. From there, Galileo spent more than five years traveling to Jupiter.

The Galileo orbiter was designed and developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission for NASA. The atmospheric probe was developed by NASA's Ames Research Center. Hughes Aircraft Company acted as the prime contractor. The German government is a partner in the mission through its provisions of the spacecraft propulsion subsystem and two science experiments. The spacecraft carries 10 scientific instruments, six of which are located on the probe. The spacecraft's radio link to Earth and the probe-to-orbiter radio link are also used to conduct scientific investigations.

Like Voyager and other interplanetary spacecraft, Galileo used gravity assists from Venus and Earth to gain enough momentum to travel to Jupiter. Galileo spent the first three years of its journey making flybys of Venus and Earth before it was ready to swing outward toward Jupiter. These gravity assist encounters provided Galileo with the opportunity to conduct brief scientific observations of Venus, at closest approach on February 10, 1990, and of Earth and the Moon, with closest approaches on December 8, 1990 and December 8, 1992. During this phase of the mission, the spacecraft made two planned visits to the asteroid belt beyond the orbit of Mars and provided the first opportunities for close observation of these bodies. In October 1991, Galileo flew by the asteroid Gaspra, obtaining the world's first close-up asteroid images. In August 1993, it flew by a second asteroid, Ida, and discovered the first confirmed asteroid moon, named Dactyl. In July 1994 Galileo was the only observer to obtain images of the far side of Jupiter when more than 20 fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 plunged into Jupiter's night side atmosphere over a six day interval.

Galileo arrived at Jupiter, on December 7, 1995, and performed several important tasks to place itself in the correct orbit around Jupiter. It then relayed about 60 minutes of data from an atmospheric probe as it descended into Jupiter's atmosphere. The spacecraft made its closest flyby of Io at the same time, just 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) away, and performed scientific investigations of Io's volcanic moon. Once the probe's signal was lost - - the probe was vaporized because of the high temperatures of Jupiter's atmosphere - - the larger part of the spacecraft, the orbiter, began its two year tour of the Jovian environment. It is making 11 orbits around the planet and many of its 16 moons, taking advantage of 10 close satellite encounters to conduct science investigations.

Mission maps

Probe Mission

Galileo's Orbit

Galileo's study of Jupiter

Pictures taken by Galileo

Galileo's picture of Earth and the Moon
Jupiter Red Stop
Jupiter
 

Questions
    1. What is the weight of Galileo?
        A. 2530Kg
        B. 1000Kg
        C. 2380Kg
        D. 3240Kg
    2. What is the weight of Galileo's probe?
        A. 225Kg
        B. 335Kg
        C. 353Kg
        D. 523Kg
    3. On what date did Galileo launch?
        A. Oct. 18, 1989
        B. Nov. 28, 1988
        C. Sept. 3, 1990
        D. Dec. 15, 1987
    4. On what date did Galileo's probe launch?
        A. March 24, 1996
        B.May 12, 1995
        C.June 16, 1996
        D.July 13, 1995
    5. Was Galileo the first to make a close fly by of an asteroid?
        A.Yes
        B.No
    6. What was the name of the comet that hit Jupiter?
        A. Mr.Yang
        B. Shoemaker-Levy 9
        C. Ida
        D. Gaspra
    7. How many years did it take Galileo to get to Jupiter?
        A. 3
        B. 6
        C. 5
        D. 4
    8. Was Galileo the first satellite to orbit Jupiter
        A. Yes
        B. No
    9. When was Jupiter discovered?
        A. 1610
        B. 1520
        C. 1718
        D. 1620
    10. Who discovered Jupiter?
        A. Charles Darwin
        B. Galileo Galilei
        C. Charles Godered
        D. Mr. Yang
    11. From which ship was Galileo launched?
        A. Apollo
        B. Discovery
        C. Atlantis
        D. Sputnik
    12. Who designed and developed Galileo?
        A. A&W Root Beer
        B.TWA
        C.Lockeed
        D.Jet Propulsion Laboratory
    13. On what date was the probe launched
        A.Dec 7, 1995
        B.Feb 12, 1990
        C.Sept 16, 1993
        D.Nov. 28, 1996
    14. Who developed the Probe used by Galileo?
        A.NASA Ames Research Center
        B.Jet Propulsion Laboratory
        C.Lockeed
        D.TWA
    15. How many scientific instruments does Galileo have?
        A.12
        B.5
        C.10
        D.7
    16. How long did the probe relay messages to Galileo?
        A.30 min
        B.100 min
        C.10 min
        D. 60 min
    17. What was the closest Galileo got to Io?
        A.500Km
        B.1000Km
        C.2000Km
        D.1800Km
    18. In what year did Galileo flyby Gaspra?
        A.1990
        B.1991
        C.1992
        D.1993
    19. In what year did Galileo flyby Ida?
        A.1991
        B.1995
        C.1994
        D.1993
    20. How many fragments of Shoemaker Levy 9 hit Jupiter?
        A.30
        B.10
        C.20
        D.35
    21. What is the name of Ida's moon?
        A.Maxer
        B.Jup
        C.Dactyl
        D.Kered
    22. How many years did Galileo make flybys of Earth and Venus before going to Jupiter?
        A.1
        B.2
        C.4
        D.3
    23. How many times did Galileo reach the asteriod belt?
        A.1
        B.7
        C.2
        D.4
    24. How many scientific instruments did Galileo's probe have?
        A.2
        B.6
        C.5
        D.7
    25. Was Galileo the first satellite to send a probe down into Jupiter?
        A.Yes
        B. No

Answers
1.  C
2. B
3. A
4. D
5. A
6. B
7. C
8. A
9. A
10. B
11. C
12. D
13. A
14. A
15. C
16. D
17. C
18. B
19. D
20. C
21. C
22. D
23. C
24. B
25. A