Galileo Earth/Moon News Conference

This NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) video release (Part 1 of 2) begins with a presentation given by William J. O'Neil (Galileo Project Manager) describing the status and position of the Galileo spacecraft 7 days prior to the Galileo Earth-2 flyby. Slides are presented including diagrams of the Galileo spacecraft trajectory, trajectory correction maneuvers, and the Venus and asteroid flybys. Torrence Johnson (Galileo Project Scientist) follows Mr. O'Neil with an explanation of the Earth/Moon science activities that will be undertaken during the second Galileo/Earth encounter. These activities include remote sensing, magnetospheric and plasma measurements, and images taken directly from Galileo of the Earth and Moon. Dr. Joseph Veverka (Galileo Imaging Team, Cornell University) then gives a brief presentation of the data collected by the first Galileo/Gaspra asteroid flyby. Images sampled from the 57 photographs taken of Gaspra are presented along with discussions of Gaspra's morphology, shape and size, and surface features. These presentations are followed by a question and answer period given for the benefit of scientific journalists whose subjects include overall Galileo spacecraft health, verification of the Gaspra images timeframe, and the condition of certain scientific spacecraft instruments. Part 2 of this video can be retrieved by using Report No. NONP-NASA-VT-2000001078.