Posted: Sat, Jan 19, 2002, 2:24 PM ET (1924 GMT)
Engineers recovered NASA's Galileo spacecraft from safe mode early Friday, one day after freezing up during its flyby of the Jovian moon Io. Galileo resumed normal operations Thursday night at 11 pm EST (0400 GMT Friday), about 14 hours after a radiation-triggered computer upset caused the spacecraft to go into safe mode. The problem kept Galileo from making many of its planned observations of Io during Thursday's flyby, although the spacecraft recovered in time to perform some last imaging of Jupiter, Europa, and Amalthea before its camera is turned off permanently. Galileo's mission will end next September when the spacecraft plunges into Jupiter's atmosphere, a measure that will prevent the spacecraft from accidentally colliding from Europa and possibly contaminating it.

Related Links:

•  NASA/JPL Galileo status report
•  AP article
•  SPACE.com article