Galileo (spacecraft)

Galileo

Artist's concept of Galileo at Io with Jupiter in the background. In reality, the high-gain foldable antenna failed to deploy in flight.
Names	Jupiter Orbiter Probe
Mission type	Jupiter orbiter
Operator	NASA
COSPAR ID	1989-084B
SATCAT no.	20298
Website	solarsystem.nasa.gov/galileo/
Mission duration	Planned: 8 years, 1 month, 19 days Jupiter orbit: 7 years, 9 months, 13 days Final: 13 years, 11 months, 3 days
Distance travelled	4,631,778,000 km (2.88 billion mi)[1]
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer	Jet Propulsion Laboratory[2] Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm[2] General Electric[2] Hughes Aircraft Company[2]
Launch mass	Total: 2,560 kg (5,640 lb)[2] Orbiter: 2,220 kg (4,890 lb)[2] Probe: 340 kg (750 lb)[2]
Dry mass	Orbiter: 1,880 kg (4,140 lb)[2] Probe: 340 kg (750 lb)[2]
Payload mass	Orbiter: 118 kg (260 lb)[2] Probe: 30 kg (66 lb)[2]
Power	Orbiter: 570 watts at launch,[2] 493 watts on arrival,[3] 410 watts at end-of-life Probe: 730 watt-hours[2]
Start of mission
Launch date	October 18, 1989, 16:53:40 (1989-10-18UTC16:53:40) UTC
Rocket	Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-34/IUS
Launch site	Kennedy LC-39B
Entered service	December 8, 1995, 01:16 UTC SCET
End of mission
Disposal	Controlled entry into Jupiter
Decay date	September 21, 2003, 18:57:18 (2003-09-21UTC18:57:19) UTC
Instruments SSI Solid-State Imager NIMS Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer UVS Ultraviolet Spectrometer PPR Photopolarimeter-Radiometer DDS Dust Detector Subsystem EPD Energetic Particles Detector HIC Heavy Ion Counter MAG Magnetometer PLS Plasma Subsystem PWS Plasma Wave Subsystem
NASA Flagship Program ← Voyager program Cassini–Huygens →

Galileo was an American robotic space probe that studied the planet Jupiter and its moons, as well as the asteroids Gaspra and Ida. Named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, it consisted of an orbiter and an entry probe. It was delivered into Earth orbit on October 18, 1989, by Space Shuttle Atlantis, during STS-34. Galileo arrived at Jupiter on December 7, 1995, after gravitational assist flybys of Venus and Earth, and became the first spacecraft to orbit an outer planet.^[4]

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory built the Galileo spacecraft and managed the Galileo program for NASA. West Germany's Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm supplied the propulsion module. NASA's Ames Research Center managed the atmospheric probe, which was built by Hughes Aircraft Company. At launch, the orbiter and probe together had a mass of 2,562 kg (5,648 lb) and stood 6.15 m (20.2 ft) tall.

Spacecraft are normally stabilized either by spinning around a fixed axis or by maintaining a fixed orientation with reference to the Sun and a star. Galileo did both. One section of the spacecraft rotated at 3 revolutions per minute, keeping Galileo stable and holding six instruments that gathered data from many different directions, including the fields and particles instruments.

Galileo was intentionally destroyed in Jupiter's atmosphere on September 21, 2003. The next orbiter to be sent to Jupiter was Juno, which arrived on July 5, 2016.