We join you all to commemorate this day of 2003
when the GALILEO
MISSION was brought to an end after its
over 14 years being in space to the service of mankind to explore the plant
Jupiter and its moons Mission completed this day, September 21,
2003
GALILEO was an unmanned spacecraft sent by NASA to
study the planet Jupiter and its moons. Named after the astronomer and
Renaissance pioneer Galileo Galilei, it was launched on October 18, 1989 by the
Space Shuttle Atlantis on the STS-34 mission. It arrived at Jupiter on December
7, 1995, a little more than six years later, via gravitational assist flybys of
Venus and Earth. On this day, i.e. September 21, 2003, after
having been
14 years in space and 8 years of service in the Jovian system, Galileo's mission
was terminated by sending the orbiter into Jupiter's atmosphere at a speed of
nearly 50 kilometres per second to avoid any chance of it contaminating local
moons with bacteria from Earth. Of particular concern was the ice-crusted moon
Europa, which, thanks to Galileo, scientists now suspect harbors a potentially
life-supporting saltwater ocean beneath its surface.
