On this day, 36 years ago, on October 18, 1989 (September 19, 1989 in the lunar calendar), the United States launched the Galileo Jupiter exploration spacecraft. On October 18, 1989, the US space shuttle Atlantis, whose launch was twice postponed, finally roared into the sky at Cape Canaveral, Florida at 12:53 noon. The main mission of Atlantis 'space trip is to send the Galileo spacecraft exploring Jupiter into Earth orbit. At 7:13 that night, Atlantis successfully released the Galileo spacecraft and its thrusters. At this point, the Galileo spacecraft has embarked on a long journey of 6 years and about 3.8 billion kilometers to Jupiter. Before flying to Jupiter in December 1995, an automatic probe will detach from the spacecraft and fall into Jupiter's atmosphere. This will be the first time that a human-built spacecraft has penetrated deep into the atmosphere of a planet in the solar system in outer space. Public opinion here believes that the successful launch of Galileo means that the United States has entered another "golden age" in space exploration. The launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, originally scheduled for last Thursday, was postponed until yesterday due to a computer failure, but was postponed again due to thunderstorms. Atlantis is expected to return to the ground next Monday. Among the five astronauts on the mission was Chinese physicist Zhang Fulin. According to the plan, the Galileo spacecraft will pass by Venus in February 1990, fly by the Earth twice in December 1990 and December 1992, and then reach Jupiter in December 1995 with the help of Earth's gravity. The Galileo spacecraft cost nearly US$1 billion and is the most sophisticated interstellar vehicle in the United States to date. The entire launch plan cost approximately US$1.5 billion. The spacecraft has a total weight of 2550 kilograms and has a nuclear power device containing 22.7 kilograms of radioactive uranium¡¤238. The spacecraft is equipped with 17 scientific instruments such as cameras, near-infrared survey spectrometers, magnetointensity meters, cloud meters, and atmospheric structure meters, which are used to survey and study Jupiter's atmospheric composition, cloud structure, temperature, and magnetic field. The Galileo Jupiter exploration program was jointly carried out by the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany.