On 28 August 1993 the Galileo spacecraft encountered the asteroid 243 Ida and its moon Dactyl. A variety of observations of this asteroid system were collected, including visible wavelength (0.4--1.0 ¿m) imagery with the Solid State Imager (SSI) instrument and infrared wavelength (0.7--5.2 ¿m) with the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) for both objects. These data indicate that 243 Ida has an orthopyroxene/(orthopyroxene + olivine) ratio of 0.35, a value consistent with that of LL chondrites. The ratio does not vary significantly for the portions of 243 Ida observed by the Galileo NIMS instrument. Asteroid 243 Ida is a SIV subtype of the S type asteroid population. Two very similar spectral units were identified in a combined SSI and NIMS spectral data set. The primary discriminator between the spectral units is a small difference in the amount of red slope. A larger red slope value corresponds to regions of 243 Ida where ejecta from the crater Azurra are present. Dactyl has a relatively deep absorption centered around 0.97 ¿m. This suggests that Dactyl has larger mineral grains on its surface in comparison to 243 Ida and thus was formed by a younger collision than that which formed 243 Ida.