Galileo spacecraft's orbital map. Diagram showing the orbital plan for the Galileo spacecraft as it explores Jupiter and its inner moons. The yellow l

---

Galileo spacecraft's orbital map. Diagram showing the orbital plan for the Galileo spacecraft as it explores Jupiter and its inner moons. The yellow lines are the spacecraft's orbits, the orange circles (upper left) are the orbits of Jupiter's four major moons. Galileo will arrive in Jupiter's system on 7 December 1995. Entering its first orbit, Galileo will make its only close fly-by of the innermost moon, Io. The subsequent 10 planned tours of the Jovian system will take 23 months. Each tour consists of a seven-day encounter with Jupiter and one of the major moons (Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) followed by a long cruise to allow data to be relayed to Earth.

---

Size: 4752px × 3549px
Photo credit: © JULIAN BAUM/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: craft, exploration, galileo, jupiter, map, orbital, orbits, research, space, spacecraf, spacecraft