December 7, 2020 - Galileo Gets Down to Business
Galileo Gets Down to Business After being launched from the orbiting space shuttle Atlantis in 1989, the Galileo spacecraft followed a circuitous route through the inner solar system, passing Venus once and Earth twice. Each time, the sightseeing probe stole some gravity from the planets it was passing, ultimately gaining speed to make it out to its final destination. Upon its arrival at Jupiter 25 years ago this week, Galileo’s first order of business was to relay signals from the atmospheric entry probe it had released to measure firsthand the structure and composition of Jupiter’s atmosphere. With the probe’s hour-long mission complete, Galileo settled in to an eight-year stint orbiting Jupiter, surveying the gas giant, its ring system, and its many moons, including the volcanically active Io, above.
Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona
Weekly Calendar
December 7 - 13, 2020
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 7
Vesta 0.5° south of Moon
Last Qtr Moon 7:37 PM ET
1905: Gerard Kuiper born
1972: Apollo 17 launched
1995: Galileo probe enters Jupiter’s atmosphere; orbiter begins prime mission
1997: Galileo Europa Mission begins
2018: Chang'e 4 spacecraft launched to Moon
Tuesday 8
1964: Apollo A-002 launched
1990: Galileo makes first Earth flyby on way to Jupiter
1992: Galileo makes second Earth flyby on way to Jupiter
2010: SpaceX Dragon 1 launched; first private spacecraft recovered from orbit
Wednesday 9
1978: Pioneer-Venus 2 probes enter atmosphere of Venus
2006: STS-116 Discovery launched
Thursday 10
Hanukkah begins at sunset
1963: Dyna-Soar project canceled
1999: Newton X-Ray Multi-Mirror Telescope launched
Friday 11
1863: Annie Jump Cannon born
1972: Apollo 17 lands on Moon
1993: Sotheby’s holds first auction of Soviet space hardware & artifacts
Saturday 12
Moon at perigee
Venus 0.8° south of Moon
1961: OSCAR 1 launched, first amateur radio satellite
1970: Italian ground crew becomes first to launch satellite for America, Explorer 42
2012: North Korea launches first satellite, KMS 3-2
Sunday 13
Geminid meteor shower
2001: Final drop test of the X-38 Crew Return Vehicle prototype
2018: Virgin Galactic VSS Unity reaches space