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Galileo To Taste Jupiter Before Taking Final Plunge

In the end, the Galileo spacecraft will get a taste of Jupiter before taking a final plunge into the planet's crushing atmosphere, ending the mission on Sunday, Sept. 21. The team expects the spacecraft to transmit a few hours of science data in real time leading up to impact. The spacecraft has been purposely put on a collision course with Jupiter to eliminate any chance of an unwanted impact between the spacecraft and Jupiter's moon Europa, which Galileo discovered is likely to have a subsurface ocean. The long-planned impact is necessary now that the onboard propellant is nearly depleted.

More: JPL - Galileo To Taste Jupiter Before Taking Final Plunge

More: JPL - Countdown to Jupiter Impact

Link: JPL - Galileo Journey to Jupiter

Entry posted by HotTopics on Wednesday, September 17, 2003 at 12:00. Filed under Other Missions. The author does not allow comments to this entry.