After 14 years in space, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft was intentionally destroyed in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
The Galileo spacecraft was a space probe designed to study Jupiter and its moons. Launched on October 18, 1989, it became the first spacecraft to orbit an outer planet. Galileo’s mission was initially planned to last eight years but managed to keep functioning until it all but ran out of fuel. It was only due to this that it was crashed into Jupiter’s atmosphere, as it would not be able to be controlled anymore without fuel.