GALILEO- Galileo was on the books since the late seventies as a follow up on Jupiter in light of the success of Voyager and Pioneer. Designed to orbit Jupiter, Galileo carried out a mini "Grand Tour" of the Jovian system from 1995 to 2003.Â
It was originally delayed from a 1986 launch due to Challenger and lost its massive Centaur upper stage ride to safety issues. A three stage IUS was substituted along with a lengthy Venus, Earth, Earth Gravity assist (VEEGA) trajectory to attain the speeds necessary to reach Jupiter. A more complex version of VEEGA would be used to loft Cassini to Saturn later in the decade of the nineties. REQUIRES EARTH_1975