thumb|left|Galileo is prepared for release from . The Inertial Upper Stage (white) is attached.|alt=refer to caption The reason no one had considered the VEEGA trajectory before was that the second encounter with Earth would not give the spacecraft any extra energy. Diehl realised that this was not necessary; the second encounter would merely change its direction to put it on a course for Jupiter. In addition to increasing the flight time, the VEEGA trajectory had another drawback from the point of view of NASA Deep Space Network (DSN): Galileo would arrive at Jupiter when it was at the maximum range from Earth, and maximum range meant minimum signal strength. It would have a declination of 23 degrees south instead of 18 degrees north, so the tracking station would be the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex in Australia, with its two 34-meter and one 70-meter antennae. A northerly declination could have been supported by two sites, at Goldstone and Madrid. The Canberra antennae were supplemented by the 64-meter antenna at the Parkes Observatory.
thumb|left|Galileo is prepared for release from . The Inertial Upper Stage (white) is attached.|alt=refer to caption The reason no one had considered the VEEGA trajectory before was that the second encounter with Earth would not give the spacecraft any extra energy. Diehl realised that this was not necessary; the second encounter would merely change its direction to put it on a course for Jupiter. In addition to increasing the flight time, the VEEGA trajectory had another drawback from the point of view of NASA Deep Space Network (DSN): Galileo would arrive at Jupiter when it was at the maximum range from Earth, and maximum range meant minimum signal strength. It would have a declination of 23 degrees south instead of 18 degrees north, so the tracking station would be the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex in Australia, with its two 34-meter and one 70-meter antennae. A northerly declination could have been supported by two sites, at Goldstone and Madrid. The Canberra antennae were supplemented by the 64-meter antenna at the Parkes Observatory.