On Dec. 8, 1990, NASA's Galileo spacecraft flew by Earth on its way to Jupiter.
Galileo was the first spacecraft to study Jupiter and its moons for an extended period of time, and it actually flew by Earth twice on the way there to pick up speed. The second flyby happened 2 years later also on December 8th. Five years after its launch on Dec. 7th, 1995, Galileo arrived at Jupiter. It orbited Jupiter for eight years before NASA sent it on a crash-course into the planet's atmosphere. NASA intentionally destroyed Galileo that way so that it wouldn't run the risk of contaminated any of Jupiter's moons with bacteria from Earth.
Galileo was the first spacecraft to study Jupiter and its moons for an extended period of time, and it actually flew by Earth twice on the way there to pick up speed. The second flyby happened 2 years later also on December 8th. Five years after its launch on Dec. 7th, 1995, Galileo arrived at Jupiter. It orbited Jupiter for eight years before NASA sent it on a crash-course into the planet's atmosphere. NASA intentionally destroyed Galileo that way so that it wouldn't run the risk of contaminated any of Jupiter's moons with bacteria from Earth.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:03In 1990, NASA's Galileo spacecraft flew by Earth on its way to Jupiter.
00:08Galileo was the first spacecraft to study Jupiter and its moons for an extended period of time,
00:13and it actually flew by Earth twice on the way there to pick up speed.
00:16The second flyby happened two years later, also on December 8th.
00:20Five years after its launch, on December 7th, 1995, Galileo arrived at Jupiter.
00:25It orbited Jupiter for eight years before NASA sent it on a crash course into the planet's atmosphere.
00:30NASA intentionally destroyed Galileo that way,
00:33so that it wouldn't run the risk of contaminating any of Jupiter's moons with bacteria from Earth.
00:37And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:40NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology