[net.columbia] Jupiter Probe Completed

alb@alice.UUCP (Adam L. Buchsbaum) (02/10/84)

Hughes Aircraft Co. today unveiled the completed probe
portion of the Galileo spacecraft, designed to be launched
from the shuttle Atlantis in May, 1986, on a mission to
Jupiter.  The probe, attached to an orbiter still under
construction at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will be
propelled to Jupiter by a General Dynamics Centaur rocket
after being ejected from the shuttle.  The two will separate
on approach to the planet, the orbiter then making 11 passes
around the planet over 20 months, and the probe descending
into the planet's atmosphere.