LIVE: Launch of ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer Mission (JUICE)
ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission, Juice, is planned for launch on a Ariane 5 rocket at 14:15 CEST on 14 April from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
Juice is equipped with two monitoring cameras that will capture parts of the solar array deployment following launch, and a few days later the deployment of the 16 m-long radar antenna. If suitable images are acquired, they will be made available for publication at earliest possibility.
Beyond launch day
Over the two and a half weeks following launch, Juice will deploy its various antennas and instrument booms, which will be reported on Twitter by @ESA_JUICE and @esaoperations in the first instance. An intense three-month commissioning of Juice’s scientific instruments will also follow.
The first of four gravity assist flybys in the inner Solar System will take place in August 2024 with a lunar-Earth gravity-assist – a flyby of the Moon followed 1.5 days later by one of Earth.
SOURCE: ESA
