[sci.space] Where is GALILEO?

sal9e@amsun13.apma.Virginia.EDU (Stephen A. Lowe) (12/11/90)

I thought that the Galileo spacecraft was supposed to fly
by Earth this past weekend?  What happened?  Did I get
the date wrong?  What's the scoop?

stevo@uniblab.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Steve Groom) (12/11/90)

In article <1990Dec10.174316.27194@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> sal9e@amsun13.apma.Virginia.EDU (Stephen A. Lowe) writes:
>I thought that the Galileo spacecraft was supposed to fly
>by Earth this past weekend?  What happened?  Did I get
>the date wrong?  What's the scoop?

It went by as planned, within about 5 miles of the aim point.  (100 miles
would still have been OK.)  It was a couple of seconds early, I think.

Things are quite busy around here with Magellan, so this "encounter"
didn't get all the attention that the Voyager encounters have
received.  Besides, everyone pretty much knew what they were going to
see - not like finding Elvis on Neptune :-) .  The current shuttle
mission has also grabbed some attention.

You'll probably see the Galileo stuff start to trickle out within a
week or so, but they'll be working on the data for years.  They're
planning to correlate and compare the Galileo data with that from
several other instruments (e.g. weather satellites) which collected
data at almost the same time.
-- 
Steve Groom, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
stevo@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov  {ames,usc}!elroy!stevo

petej@phred.UUCP (Pete Jarvis) (12/11/90)

In article <1990Dec10.174316.27194@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> sal9e@amsun13.apma.Virginia.EDU (Stephen A. Lowe) writes:
>I thought that the Galileo spacecraft was supposed to fly
>by Earth this past weekend?  What happened?  Did I get
>the date wrong?  What's the scoop?

It did. It flew within 590 miles. Was only in the vicinity for half an hour.
Peter Jarvis.......

smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin) (12/12/90)

In article <1990Dec11.003925.23076@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>, stevo@uniblab.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Steve Groom) writes:
> You'll probably see the Galileo stuff start to trickle out within a
> week or so, but they'll be working on the data for years.

I saw an AP story noting that it managed to photograph a piece of the
far side of the moon that had been missed by all previous lunar missions.

bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante) (12/12/90)

smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin) <14107@ulysses.att.com> :
| I saw an AP story noting that it [Galileo] managed to photograph a piece of
| the far side of the moon that had been missed by all previous lunar missions.


At last!  All these years, wondering if *just maybe* those car keys really
are up there after all....

suitti@ima.isc.com (Stephen Uitti) (12/12/90)

...and besides, I have this idea that Galileo is gonna feel
lonely, and will be back to visit again...

Stephen.
suitti@ima.isc.com