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This Sunday, the 21st of September, the Galileo spacecraft, launched in 1989 to study Jupiter, will be intentionally crashed into the atmosphere of Jupiter, signaling the end of its mission. It was never meant for reentry, so it will break apart and burn up as soon as it enters the upper atmosphere.

The spacecraft was a good one, that made it through quite a few difficult circumstances such as delayed launch, antenna problems, radiation damage and more. Despite the issues, it remained in service for many years after its official mission had ended. It discovered 21 new moons of Jupiter, and got fantastic data about the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet when it crashed into Jupiter in 1994.

You can read a Space.com article about it here: Journey’s End: Galileo Set for Fiery Finale

One thing I think is particularly interesting about the decision to crash it into Jupiter was that it is being done to prevent Galileo from crashing into Europa, due to fears that it might contaminate any life that may be living on Europa. Europa is a watery planet, that contains far more water than all the oceans on Earth combined. It has an icy shell, but tectonic action and a warm core keep vast quantities of liquid water under the surface. Of all the places in the solar system, Europa has one of the highest chances of harboring some form of life.

To my knowledge, this is one of the first times we’ve avoided an area specifically due to concerns about contamination. Certainly those issues came up with the Mars missions, but in this case, we are actually specifially avoiding contact with potentially living organisms. I think its a good sign that we are concerned about that. Until a mission can be sent specifially to Europa, its important that we keep the possibility of life there as an open one.

So in conclusion, here’s to the spacecraft that let us reach out into space just a little bit further, and to the people who do such a great job designing them, operating them, and keeping up with them over the years.

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