The Galileo spacecraft being prepared at Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft was carried into orbit by Space Shuttle Atlantis on Oct. 18, 1989. The conical structure near the bottom of the spacecraft conceals the atmospheric probe, which dropped into Jupiter’s atmosphere on December 7, 1995.
On September 21, 2003, after 14 years in space and 8 years in the Jovian system, Galileo's mission was terminated by sending it into Jupiter's atmosphere at a speed of over 48 kilometers (30 mi) per second, eliminating the possibility of contaminating local moons with terrestrial bacteria.
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