QUESTION:
Why are there so many takeoffs in October?

ANSWER from Pieter Kallemeyn on October 10, 1997:
Probably more coincidence than anything else.  Yes, Galileo and (hopefully)
Casinni were launched in October, and they are higher profile missions, but
Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November of '96, Mars Pathfinder was
launched in Dec of '96, and future Mars missions will be launched in either
January, February or March.  The times we launch interplantary missions is
governed by the relative position of the planets, and not on any specific
time of the Earth year.

Pieter Kallemeyn, Jr.