Galileo Europa Mission Status - July 29, 1998
MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE JET PROPULSION LABORATORY CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
The Galileo spacecraft has resumed transmitting science data to Earth in real time. Last night, engineers uplinked command sequences that should enable the spacecraft to resume playing back recorded science information as of 7:15 tomorrow morning, Pacific time. This will restore complete functioning of the spacecraft's science operations, which were disrupted last week when the spacecraft put itself into "safing" mode because of an anomaly.
The anomaly was caused by multiple resets, triggered when debris shorted a signal line in one of the spacecraft's two onboard command and data subsystems. The two subsystems receive commands from Earth and transmit information to the ground. Because the anomaly occurred during a flyby of Jupiter's moon Europa, nearly all data from that encounter were lost. However, Galileo scientists expect to receive some remnants of the data that were recorded, including observations of the volcanic moon Io made by the spacecraft's near infrared mapping spectrometer.
The spacecraft is undergoing a gyroscope performance test today and engineers will analyze the results through the evening. This is in preparation for Friday morning's scheduled flight path correction maneuver. This will ensure that Galileo is aimed correctly as it heads toward another Europa flyby on September 26, with two more Europa encounters scheduled for the coming months.
During the past 2-1/2 years, the spacecraft has flown by Europa eight times, gathering intriguing pictures and science information. Galileo successfully completed its two-year primary mission in December 1997, and is in the midst of a two-year extension, known as the Galileo Europa Mission.
The Galileo Europa Mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
Return to Project Galileo Homepage