The deployment of the Galileo probe’s high-gain antenna fails; in the dramatic months that followed, JPL sought a solution, which was found in new image compression algorithms, which would be temporarily stored on an emergency magnetic tape. To deploy the antenna, the motor was turned on and off 13,001 times, without success. The problem was due to the lubricant, which, when the mission was postponed, the probe was transported from California to Florida by road, not by air, as specified. The lubricant had dried out, also due to the years of inactivity caused by the delayed launch. With the secondary antenna, the bit rate dropped from 134,000 bps to 8 or 16 bps. Then, with optimizations, it was possible to increase it to 1,000 bps. And the probe would manage to complete 70% of its scientific objectives (including the probe into the Jovian atmosphere!). And it will also photograph Comet Shoemaker-Levy as it breaks up in and then plunges into Jupiter in July 1992.
