Galileo

Galileo was a spacecraft to study Jupiter and its moons launched in 1989 from the Space Shuttle Atlantis, and arriving at Jupiter in 1995. It entered Jupiter orbit, operated for years, and finally was plunged into Jupiter in 2003. On the way to Jupiter, it flew by Venus, Earth (including lunar observations), and asteroids 951 Gaspra and 243 Ida, discovering the latter was a binary minor planet. While approaching Jupiter, it released a probe to enter Jupiter atmosphere, which reported data from within the atmosphere for about an hour before it burned up. Galileo orbiter instruments:

• SSI - Solid State Imager.
• NIMS - Near infrared Mapping Spectrometer.
• UVS/EUV - Ultraviolet Spectrometer / Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer.
• PPR - Photopolarimeter-Radiometer.
• DDS - Dust Detection Subsystem.
• EPD - Energetic Particles Detector.
• HIC - Heavy Ion Counter.
• MAG - Magnetometer.
• PLS - Plasma Subsystem.
• PWS - Plasma Wave Subsystem.

Its primary mission was for two years, followed by a two year extension called the Galileo Europa Mission (GEM), focusing on Europa, then the Galileo Millennium Mission (GMM) following up on earlier discoveries, particularly regarding the moons.