Galileo (spacecraft)

Galileo was an unmanned NASA spacecraft. It explored the planet Jupiter and its moons. Galileo was launched in 1989 and it arrived at Jupiter in 1995.

Galileo was made up of two parts: an orbiter and a probe. The probe was released from the orbiter on July 13, 1995 and it went towards Jupiter. It reached Jupiter on December 7, 1995 and went down into the atmosphere. The probe gathered data for 57 minutes until the great atmospheric heat and pressure destroyed it.

The orbiter went into orbit around the planet on December 8, 1995 and went down into Jupiter's atmosphere and was crushed on September 21, 2003. This was done intentionally to prevent potential contamination of Europa.

References

Category:NASA spacecraft
Category:Jupiter
Category:1990s in spaceflight