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From: baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle,sci.astro
Subject: Galileo Update
Message-ID: <2166@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Date: 14 Nov 89 22:14:38 GMT
Sender: news@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov
Reply-To: baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
Lines: 29


 
                      Galileo Status Report
                        14 November 1989
 
     The first course change maneuver for Galileo was successfully completed
last Saturday. The two day maneuver began last Thursday morning at a distance
of 28,200,000 miles from Earth, and consisted of a long series of time pulses
of Galileo's 2.2 pound thrusters. A shorter continuous period of firing would
have overheated the thrusters.
     The total speed change was 38 mph which will move Galileo closer to its
target point near Venus, but changes the arrival time to Venus on February
9th by only a few minutes.
     During the maneuver, a temperature sensor on one of the thrusters failed.
However, in the future the temperature of that thruster can be deduced from
nearby thruster readings.
     Galileo is now 55,162,000 miles from Earth and traveling at 60,807 mph.
After gaining momentum from Venus's gravity, Galileo will return to Earth
in December next year, use Earth's gravity to loop out to the asteroid
belt, and return back to Earth again two years later for a final gravity
push to reach Jupiter in December 1995.
     Several more days of tracking are needed to determine the accuracy of
last week's course change.
 

 Ron Baalke                       |    baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov 
 Jet Propulsion Lab  M/S 301-355  |    baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov 
 4800 Oak Grove Dr.               |
 Pasadena, CA 91109               |