  Contact: Franklin O'Donnell  FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE                                                July 27,
1995          A critical firing of the Galileo spacecraft's main
engine was successfully completed early this morning in a
maneuver that took the spacecraft off a collision course with
Jupiter and adjusted the spacecraft's flight path to begin its
mission in orbit around the giant planet later this year.
 Details of the engine firing will be discussed in a press
briefing by Galileo Project officials to be held at 10 a.m.
Pacific Daylight Time today (July 27) at NASAs Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA. The briefing
will be carried live on NASA Television.]         As planned,
Galileo has been on a Jupiter-impact trajectory since targeting
and releasing its atmospheric probe toward the planet two weeks
ago. The engine firing this morning moved Galileo off that
trajectory and positioned the spacecraft for the first close
encounter of its Jupiter mission -- a flyby of the