Galileo Spacecraft Passes Callisto

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - The aging spacecraft's balky camera appeared to be working through the 7:24 a.m. EDT encounter, mission controllers said.

The intense radiation environment close to Jupiter caused the probe's camera to begin acting up Wednesday. Mission team members believe the problem caused the loss of pictures Galileo snapped earlier of the moon Io.

The camera appeared to operate properly during the flyby, said Eilene Theilig, Galileo project manager at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

``This incredible spacecraft has come through for us again,' she said.

Galileo has been orbiting Jupiter and touring its moons since December 1995 and is showing its age after absorbing three times more radiation than it was designed to withstand.

Friday's flight past heavily cratered Callisto sets up Galileo for flybys of the moon Io in August and October.

Since its launch in 1989, Galileo has flown past more worlds than any other spacecraft in history, thanks to past encounters with the Earth, Venus, two asteroids, Jupiter and the gas giant's four largest moons.

What images Galileo was able to capture during the flyby, as well as other data, will be transmitted to Earth over the next two months.

Galileo will swing past the moon Io three more times and the moon Amalthea once before NASA send the spacecraft plunging into Jupiter's atmosphere in September 2003 on its 35th orbit of the planet.

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