Galileo spacecraft, launched October 18, 1989, ended its mission when NASA sent it plunging into Jupiter's atmosphere, September 21, 2003. It flew by Venus in February 1990 and flew by Earth in December 1990 and approached asteroid 951 Gaspra in October 1991. It made a second flyby of Earth in December 1992 before making close observations of another asteroid Ida. It discovered Ida's moon Dactyl, the first time a moon orbiting an asteroid had ever been seen.
Galileo observed fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crash into Jupiter. Besides examining Jupiter, it made several flybys of moons Europa and Io.
NASA turned off Galileo's cameras in January 2002, since they had been permanently damaged by radiation. They were able to recover scientific data from a damaged tape recorder and received measurements of the moon Amalthea, before taking its final plunge.
The mission was successful beyond imagination.
