Posted: Sun, Sep 21, 2003, 10:09 PM ET (0209 GMT)
NASA's Galileo spacecraft ended its mission Sunday with a final plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere, bringing to an end a journey that started 14 years ago. The last signals from Galileo arrived at Earth at 3:43 pm EDT (1943 GMT), with the spacecraft breaking up and vaporizing in the planet's atmosphere shortly thereafter. The spacecraft wrapped up its science shortly before final contact, when its star scanner looked towards the inner moon Amalthea, looking for evidence of rocky debris that may exist in the vicinity of the small moon. Galileo was launched in 1989 and entered orbit around Jupiter in 1995. It completed its primary mission in 1997 and then embarked on a series of extended missions that concluded Sunday. The spacecraft was deliberately targeted for Jupiter since its maneuvering propellant had nearly run out and NASA was concerned that the spacecraft might, at some point in the future, collide with the moon Europa. That moon is thought to have a subsurface ocean of liquid water that could support life, and scientists were concerned that terrestrial bacteria that could have survived Galileo's extended journey might contaminate the moon.

Related Links:

•  NASA/JPL status report
•  SPACE.com article
•  AP article
•  Reuters article
•  BBC article