Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/pc/text/jplnews2/1381.pr

Text File | 1993-05-03 | 2KB | 40 lines

PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109.  TELEPHONE [phone]



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                          July 1, 1991


    NASA's Galileo spacecraft will turn and fire its small on-
board thrusters Tuesday, July 2, to set its course for an
encounter with the asteroid Gaspra in October.
    Acting on computer commands sent to it by engineers at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the 2-1/2-ton spacecraft will begin
its maneuver about 8:20 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time Tuesday.
    The maneuver will alter Galileo's velocity in space by about
3.6 meters per second (about 8 miles per hour), slowing it
slightly and adjusting the flyby distance at Gaspra on October 29
to 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles).
    The October event will be the first flyby of an asteroid.
Gaspra, about 11 miles long, orbits roughly 200 million miles
from the sun near the inner edge of the asteroid belt.
Scientists believe it is a fairly typical small, rocky main-belt
asteroid.
    Galileo is en route to the giant planet Jupiter, where it
will go into orbit in December 1995 after sending a probe into
Jupiter's atmosphere.  Following an October 1989 launch, the
spacecraft flew by Venus and the Earth in 1990 in gravity-assist
passes to increase its velocity.  One more Earth gravity assist

is planned in December 1992 to pick up the last increment of
velocity necessary to reach Jupiter.
    The Galileo mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space
Science and Applications by JPL.
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6/28/91 jhw