GALILEO

The GALILEO mission, under the responsibility of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), aimed to send a probe close to Jupiter. The GALILEO probe was launched on the space shuttle Atlantis on October 18, 1989. After a first fly-by of the planet Venus (February 10, 1990) and two of Earth (December 8, 1990 and December 8, 1992), it arrived in orbit around Jupiter on December 7, 1995. Galileo mission ended by entering the atmosphere of Jupiter on September 21, 2003

The probe carried several scientific experiments on board, in particular PWS (Plasma Wave Subsystem) which is the main experiment. The Galileo probe recorded several new discoveries during its 14-year mission to Jupiter. Among his discoveries :

• a belt of intense radiation above the cloud tops of Jupiter,
• Helium in about the same concentration as the Sun,
• the extensive and rapid resurfacing of the moon Io due to volcanism,
• the evidence of liquid water oceans under the icy surface of the moon Europa

Access to mission data

Access to mission documents