The Galileo spacecraft mission to study Jupiter and its moons has been extended until August, 2003. The extension will allow the $1.4 billion unmanned spacecraft to make 5 more swings past Jupiter’s moons Amalthea, Callisto, and Io before it burns up in Jupiter’s 37,000–mile-thick atmosphere. Scientists want images of the volcanoes on Io and to collect information on the mass and density of Amalthea.

NASA is going to crash Galileo into Jupiter so the spacecraft won’t crash into Europa, which could contaminate it with terrestrial microbes. Europa may have a salty ocean underneath the frozen ice surface that may contain life forms. Scientists don’t want to interfere with any native life that may be developing on Europa.