Galileo Successfully Fires Main Engine

PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011

Contact:  Franklin O'Donnell

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                 July 27, 1995

CRITICAL ENGINE FIRING SUCCESSFUL FOR JUPITER-BOUND GALILEO

A critical firing of the Galileo spacecraft's main engine was successfully completed early this morning in a maneuver that took the spacecraft off a collision course with Jupiter and adjusted the spacecraft's flight path to begin its mission in orbit around the giant planet later this year.

Details of the engine firing will be discussed in a press briefing by Galileo Project officials to be held at 10 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time today (July 27) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA. The briefing will be carried live on NASA Television. The approximately 5-minute-long engine firing for the so-called "orbiter deflection maneuver" occurred at 12:38 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time (This is the time when Galileo's radio signal reporting the event was received on Earth. The signal travels at the speed of light, and one-way light time from Galileo to Earth was about 38 minutes at the time of the maneuver.)

The main engine could not be tested or fired prior to release of the atmospheric probe because the probe was mounted in front of the engine nozzle.

The orbiter deflection maneuver was designed to change the spacecraft's velocity by 61.9 meters per second (about 140 miles per hour).

The Galileo spacecraft, which will enter orbit around Jupiter on December 7, will conduct a two-year-long, detailed study of the planet, its moons and magnetic environment, and return data from the atmospheric probe, which will dive into Jupiter December 7.

Galileo was launched in October 1989 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, FL. Galileo's Jupiter atmospheric probe is managed by NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA. The Galileo spacecraft was built and the overall mission is managed by JPL.

Related Home Pages

Galileo Project Home Page (JPL)