Number 53 (Story #2), October 29, 1991 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein THE ASTEROID GASPRA will be observed on October 29 by the Galileo spacecraft as it negotiates the asteroid belt on its way toward Jupiter. The flyby represents a scaled-back study of asteroid properties; Galileo had been projected to swing past the 200-km wide asteroid Amphitrite until slipping NASA launch schedules obliged mission scientists to settle for the much smaller (12.5 km in diameter) Gaspra. Galileo's antenna problems also do not help matters. The chief tasks of the encounter now are to take photographs and to record spectra. The prevalence of metal on Gaspra, if it could be measured accurately, would provide information about asteroid formation and lead to a better understanding of the early solar system. (Science, 18 October 1991.)