ESA’s icy moon of Jupiter Explorer mission – ‘Juice’ – prepares to embark on a journey to the largest planet in the solar system.
Eurospaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
The launch was supposed to take place yesterday but was postponed due to bad weather conditions.
Juice will travel 8 years, 6.6 billion kilometers to Study the three moons of Jupiter: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. Each of these worlds has an ocean hidden beneath the ice shell — an important target for astronomers looking for extraterrestrial life.
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ESA will live broadcast the press conference on its website
and continue their YouTube channel You can check it out below. French viewers can access ESA’s Internet TV II. Ariane 5 . Due to the intricacies of the orbit that will take Juice to Jupiter, the rocket has to be lifted in a fraction of a second. Fortunately, an extra second is available every day until the end of April Launch window in case today’s launch is unsuccessful.
The Ariane 5 rocket will launch Juice into orbit. This launch will be the heavy Ariane The penultimate flight of Na 5, which is retiring after more than 30 years of service. Image credit: ESA.
If all goes according to plan, Juice will separate from the upper stage of Ariane 5 at 14:42 CEST, and then send its first signal to the Earth’s surface at 14:51 CEST.
The space agency expects the solar array to be at 15: Deployment completed by 55 CEST.
0️⃣ Good morning #ESAJuice launch day!
How to follow 👉https://t.co/WoeO7VSwWQ
Critical moment (time=cest):
🔴 13:45 Live show starts esawebtv
🚀 Posted at 14:15
📡 14:51 Get signal (earliest)
🛰️15:55 Solar Array deployment (time may vary)
question? #AskESA! pic.twitter.com/oaV77pV5iz
Within two weeks of launch, the satellite will deploy All its antennas and instrument booms. This will be followed by a three-month long-term commissioning, during which all of the spacecraft’s science instruments will be tuned.
Just 28 minutes after liftoff, Ariane 5 (left) will send Juice into space. Image credit: ESA.
Its first flyby will take longer, that’s just for 2024 August. At that point, it will fly by the Moon, and about a day and a half later by the Earth. The satellite will use the Earth-Moon gravitational field to throw itself into Jupiter’s orbit.
Juice will arrive at Jupiter in July 2031.
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