Build a billion-dollar machine, fly it billions of miles for 14 years, then deliberately order it to plunge into a 110,000 mile-per-hour fiery abyss, all to protect the mere possibility of alien life. This is the real, deeply human story of NASA's Galileo spacecraft.

We look past the dry aerospace specs to uncover the chaotic birth, the brilliant on-the-fly improvisations, and the poetic death of the first spacecraft to ever orbit Jupiter. From its Apple II-era brain to its crippled antenna to its plunge into Europa-protecting oblivion, Galileo is a master class in ingenuity and cosmic stewardship.

• The dual-spin engineering that let one section stay locked on targets while another spun for stability in Jupiter's punishing radiation
• The Challenger delay, the plutonium RTG lawsuits, and why solar panels were physically impo ...