NASA Decides to Sacrifice Galileo Spacecraft

Rather than chance allowing the spacecraft to contaminate potential life under the frozen surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa, NASA has decided to allow the Galileo spacecraft to burn itself up in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Galileo has been in orbit around Jupiter for the last eight years, sending back stunning pictures of the giant planet and its more than 60 moons. According to this CBS News article, the Galileo mission took the first great strides in turning the search for extraterrestrial life from the stuff of fanciful fiction into mainstream science. Also See: Atmosphere on Planet Outside Solar System Detected