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1993-05-03
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PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMarch 18, 1991
NASA's Galileo spacecraft will execute a trajectory
correction maneuver Wednesday, March 20, to help aim it for the
first-ever flyby of an asteroid next October.
In the maneuver Galileo will fire its small thrusters
on and off during a period beginning at about 10 a.m. Pacific
Standard Time (PST) and concluding at about 1:30 p.m. PST. The
firings will result in a velocity change of about 5 miles per
hour.
The maneuver, together with three more planned in July
and October, will shape Galileo's flight path for its flyby of
Gaspra in the main asteroid belt on October 29.
Galileo will be the first spacecraft to fly by an
asteroid when it approaches within about 1,000 miles of the
irregularly shaped, stony lump measuring nearly 15 miles across.
The spacecraft has an opportunity for another asteroid
encounter in 1993 en route to its destination, the giant planet
Jupiter and its system of moons.
The Galileo Project is managed by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications.
###
3-14-91 FOD