October 18th in Astronomy and Space Science
![]() | 1962 | US Ranger 5 probe makes a crash landing on the moon, but a power failure results in a loss of most of the data. |
![]() | 1967 | Soviet Venera 4 spacecraft reaches Venus. A probe jettisoned from the craft descends by parachute into the clouds of Venus. The probe carries sensors for temperature, pressure, density and gas analysis. It transmits data until reaching an altitude of 24 km (15 miles). |
![]() | 1989 | US launches the US-European Galileo spacecraft. The two-part spacecraft, consisting of an orbiter and descent probe, arrived at Jupiter on 7 December 1995. The probe portion of the spacecraft separated and entered Jupiter's atmosphere, while the orbiter conducted repeated flybys of Jupiter and its four largest moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto for the next six years. |