The Galileo spacecraft is now well beyond the asteroid belt, heading for its mid-July observations of Comet Shoemaker-Levy-9's impact with the night side of Jupiter. The spacecraft is still transmitting scientific observations and images stored onboard from its August 28, 1993, flyby of the asteroid Ida and its newly discovered moon. The science team reported preliminary analyses of Ida and the moon late last month.
The flight team is planning to have Galileo observe Comet Shoemaker-Levy-9's multiple impacts from a distance of 240 million kilometers (150 million miles). The spacecraft will be the only observer in a position to image the impact sites, which will be out of view of Earth. The data will be stored on Galileo's onboard tape recorder for later playback.
Almost a year later, in July 1995, the spacecraft will release its Jupiter atmospheric entry probe. From that point, the orbiter and probe will fly separately to Jupiter. Probe entry, atmospheric data relay and orbit insertion will all occur on December 7, 1995. The orbiter will then collect data about Jupiter, its major moons and its magnetosphere for the next two years.
The Galileo spacecraft is operating normally, spinning at 3
rpm and transmitting over the low-gain antenna at 40 bits per
second. It is currently 678 million kilometers (421 million
miles) from the sun, about 570 million kilometers (350 million
miles) from Earth, and now less than 250 million kilometers (155
million miles) from Jupiter.