Galileo - Responses to the Challenger accident

Abstract

The Galileo mission to Jupiter will make the first direct sampling of the atmosphere of the solar system's largest planet and will spend as long as 22 months orbiting Jupiter. Launch date, trajectory, Jupiter arrival, and number of orbits of that planet depend on NASA's flight schedules since destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986. Galileo's responses to the schedule changes caused by the Challenger explosion are discussed.