Galileo successfully completed its third, and closest, flyby of the volcanic Jovian moon Io early Tuesday, project officials report.
All indications are that the spacecraft made the flyby with no significant problems.
If all continues as planned, this new data will round out our Io photo album and the wealth of information gathered during the Io flybys last October and November. Scientists hope that this flyby will allow them to see changes in the surface of the dynamic moon since the previous two close flybys in October and November. The flyby was the last in a set of three close approaches to Io. The flybys were planned towards the end of Galileo's extended mission to study Jupiter and its moons because of the intense radiation environment near Jupiter, where the planet's intense magnetic field accelerates charged particles to high speeds. During past flybys of Io Galileo's computers and other systems have been hammered by the intense radiation, which put the spacecraft into a safe mode just hours before its November encounter.