Shuttle Atlantis Is Rolled Out, Will Lift Venus-Jupiter Probe

The space shuttle Atlantis was rolled to the launch pad Tuesday for a mission that is to send the plutonium-fueled Galileo spacecraft on a six-year flight to Venus and Jupiter.

The rollout allows time to ready Atlantis for liftoff Oct. 12, said Conrad Nagel, who directs shuttle preparation. The liftoff date is the first of 43 days in which Jupiter will be in a position to receive a probe from Earth in 1995.

Five astronauts will deploy Galileo about six hours after the launching, starting it on a journey on which it is to fly past Venus, pass Earth twice and make the first close approach to an asteroid.

The circuitous, 2.4-million-mile route was chosen so that Galileo can use the gravitational pull of Venus and Earth to accelerate, in slingshot fashion, toward Jupiter.

Galileo is to parachute a probe into Jupiter’s atmosphere and then spend about two years orbiting the planet, photographing it and taking measurements with scientific instruments.

To power it through its long journey, Galileo will carry two 122-pound nuclear generators. Anti-nuclear groups have protested that the nuclear material could pose a hazard if it were released accidentally, although no protesters came to the rollout Tuesday.

The Galileo mission will continue the nation’s renewal of planetary explorations after a 12-year hiatus that ended in May, when an Atlantis crew released the Magellan spacecraft, which is to orbit Venus in 1990.