25 years ago today, the Galileo spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter and its probe entered Jupiter's atmosphere.

Here's a story the mission you've probably never heard.

Orbit insertion is always a nail-biter: if the burn to slow down the craft doesn't go as planned, then your orbital mission turns into a flyby and a lot of people need to figure out a new way to cover their mortgage.

Galileo was even more nail-bitey because its big antenna, folded up like an umbrella for launch, never fully unfurled. No big gush of data, just a teeny drip from the low-gain.

All that nice science data would be recorded on the spacecraft's tape recorder and then slooooowwwwllly played back.

And then a few months before arrival the tape recorder got stuck.

My then 2.5 year old older offspring enthusiastically told everyone "the tape recorder on my mommy's spacecraft is broken".

The team carefully got the tape unstuck and came up with a plan to avoid the danger zone.

Arrival had two high priority activities: 1) get safely into orbit, and 2) collect data from the one planned flyby of the volcanic moon Io. Science team said we can do both. Project manager said no.

Scientists: but it's our only chance.
PM: focus on the existential need.

The next morning on the walls of the managerial (4th) and science floors of the project, someone taped up (as best I remember):

LOST: pair of balls. Last seen on 4th floor. If found, return to [Project Manager]

The signs were quickly removed. I still wish I'd thought to grab one.

Galileo arrived safely in orbit, and the extended mission managed to fit in another Io flyby. So in the end it all worked out. Good times.