Galileo Mission Status - November 27, 1996

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GALILEO MISSION STATUS
November 27, 1996

Data recorded by the Galileo spacecraft during its flyby of Jupiter's moon Callisto earlier this month are being returned on a steady basis, with about half the total observations received so far.

The spacecraft is operating properly and returning its science data mostlyto the array of Deep Space Network and Parkes antennas recently established to improve the data return from Galileo.

On Tuesday, Nov. 26, the spacecraft executed an orbit trajectory trim maneuver to fine-tune its targeting for the upcoming flyby of Jupiter's moon Europa next month. The flyby is scheduled to occur on Dec. 19 at 1:53 a.m. Eastern time (which falls on Dec. 18 at 10:53 p.m. Pacific time). The flyby altitude is 698 kilometers (433 miles). Scientists are looking forward to the encounter, which will be more than 200 times closer than the Voyager spacecraft came to Europa, and are hoping Galileo will find new clues indicating that this unusual moon hides an ocean beneath its cracked, icy crust.

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