Galileo:
Galileo borrowed a little gravity from Venus and Earth to build up enough speed to make the six-year journey to Jupiter. The manuever is called a gravity assist.

The Venus flyby at a distance of 16,000 km (10,000 miles) gave the mission team a chance to test Galileo's instruments and increase our understanding of the mysterious cloud cover the cloaks the surface of our closest planetary neighbor.

Visit the Galileo Website

10.18.89:  Launch (16:53:40 UT) 12.07.95:  Probe Descent (22:04 UT - 23:02 UT) 09.21.03:  Jupiter Impact (18:57:18 UT) Status:  Mission Complete Show All Dates for Galileo		04.30.08:  Jupiter's Shadow Sculpts Its Rings 04.17.07:  The Complete Io 05.31.05:  Icy Jupiter Moon Throws a Curve Ball at Formation Theories More Headlines
Galileo was launched from the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The spacecraft traveled more than 4.6 billion km (about 2.8 billion miles) during its 14-year mission. Galileo was named in honor of Galileo Galilei (above), who discovered the largest moons of Jupiter in 1610.		Solar System Bodies: Venus Galileo Multimedia Gallery Galileo's Science Instruments Galileo Animation Gallery Galileo's Science Instruments