December 8, 2022
On this date in 1990, the NASA spacecraft Galileo completed the first Earth flyby on its way to Jupiter. Throughout the journey to the gas giant, Galileo also completed flybys of Venus and the asteroids Gaspra and Ida. On December 7, 1995 – almost 5 years to the day – the spacecraft arrived at Jupiter and entered orbit. Galileo spent the next 8 years studying Jupiter and its major moons.
A photo of Earth as seen by the Galileo probe, taken in December 1990. At the time this photo was taken, Galileo was approximately 1.3 million miles from Earth Image credit: NASA/JPL