Douglas Isbell

Headquarters, Washington, DC July 11, 1995

(Phone: 202/358-1753)

Franklin O'Donnell
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
(Phone: 818/354-5011)

Diane Farrar
Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA
(Phone: 415/604-3934)

RELEASE: 95-108

GALILEO TO RELEASE JUPITER ATMOSPHERIC PROBE

A rugged, conical-shaped probe will separate from NASA's

Galileo spacecraft later this week and head for Jupiter's cloud
tops, the first time in history a human-made object will enter
the atmosphere of an outer planet in our solar system.

The probe and its payload of scientific instruments will

be deployed from the main Galileo spacecraft at 1:30 a.m. EDT
July 13 and fly solo the remaining 51 million miles to Jupiter
over the next five months. Confirmation of the release will be
received 37 minutes later, the time necessary for the radio
signal to travel back to Earth at the speed of light.

The 747-pound probe will slam into the giant gas planet's
atmosphere on Dec. 7, 1995, then begin a parachute descent
toward the planet, where it will make the first-ever
measurements within Jupiter's atmosphere.

Designed to survive the highest impact speed ever achieved

by a human-made object (106,000 mph), Galileo's atmospheric
probe should provide extraordinary new details about Jupiter's
chemical makeup and atmospheric dynamics.

At separation, Galileo will be 412 million miles from

Earth and on a flight path headed toward the probe's aimpoint
in Jupiter's atmosphere. Before the

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separation, controllers will line up Galileo's spin axis so

that it is pointed along the path the probe will take as it
enters Jupiter's atmosphere, and spin up the combined
spacecraft and probe to 10.5 rpm. The spin stabilizes the
probe's attitude, or orientation in space, as it flies toward
Jupiter.

In the sequence of events leading to probe release, ground

controllers and Galileo's onboard systems are sending a series
of commands to prepare the probe for its mission. These
include programming the probe's coast timer, an onboard clock
that will "wake up" the probe's systems and scientific
instruments six hours before it enters Jupiter's atmosphere.

After completing checks of command, data, power and other

subsystems, a built-in cable cutter has severed the umbilical
between the atmospheric probe and Galileo. Before deployment,
small explosive charges on nuts that secure the probe to
Galileo will detonate to free the probe. Three small springs
will gently push the probe away from the main spacecraft,
sending it on the last leg of its voyage to Jupiter.

Two weeks later, on July 27, Galileo is scheduled to fire

its main engine to deflect its own course toward an orbit high
above Jupiter's cloud tops. The probe and main spacecraft will
communicate again on Dec. 7 as the descending probe transmits
its data to the Galileo spacecraft, where it will be recorded
for later broadcast back to Earth. The probe will send data to
the Galileo orbiter for up to 75 minutes.

The ultimate fate of the probe may be determined by its

battery lifetime, or it may succumb to either the high
temperatures or the immense pressure of Jupiter's atmosphere.
Galileo, meanwhile, will begin two years of close-up studies of
Jupiter, its moons, rings and powerful magnetic environment as
it orbits the planet.

Galileo was launched in October 1989 aboard the Space

Shuttle Atlantis, and has flown by Venus, Earth (twice), and
two asteroids during its trip to the outer solar system.

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