QUESTION:
What happened when you first tested the probe?

ANSWER from Greg LaBorde on January 2, 1996:
I've been trying to think of an answer to this. The problem is that the
Probe was first tested more than 10 years ago. And of course the various
components within the Probe were tested first, then higher and higher
levels of assembly until finally the complete Probe was tested. In
addition, there are many different kinds of tests: functional tests, where
the basic functions of the Probe are tested; performance tests, where the
Probe engineers check to see how _well_ the Probe's systems function, and
what the limits on their performance are; Environmental tests, where the
Probe is exposed to heat, cold, vacuum, shock, G-force, etc. and its
ability to function during and afterwards checked.

Also, _during_ the flight from Earth to Jupiter, the Probe had several
"tests" in the form of checkouts to verify that it was still behaving as
expected. Finally, December 7th the Probe experienced its ultimate test
(and passed with FLYING COLORS!!).

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ADDENDUM from Dan Carlock on January 2, 1996:
Various organizations were involved in these pre-launch tests, as follows:

Hughes          Subsystem, system and environmental tests
JPL             Spacecraft-level integration tests
Sandia Labs     Entry Deceleration Test
White Sands     (Parachute Verification Test: "drop test")