As expected, the tape pulled free when engineers commanded the recorder to advance the tape. The whole incident was resolved in two days, although Galileo project members are still evaluating the implications of this second incident. The tape recorder was originally included on the spacecraft as the backup to the high-gain antenna for the probe mission. Before the high-gain antenna failed to deploy, the plan was for the spacecraft to transmit its data directly and more than 1000 times faster than the current rate. After the antenna failure, the tape recorder has become a crucial part of the primary data-transfer link, storing data until spacecraft computers can process and radio them back to Earth at a slower speed.
Many opportunities lie ahead.
Galileo is scheduled to make 10 visits to Jupiter's three other Galilean moons over the next 2 years and return over 1000 images of the planet and its moons. There is even some discussion of paying another close-up visit to Io during an extended mission, but the December 7 encounter exposed the spacecraft to a significant amount of radiation, and to repeat this exposure may be too risky. The suspense of dealing with the tape recorder may have been stressful, but Galileo personnel have had their share of close calls and workarounds during the mission's life and so have learned to handle crisis well.