Europe successfully launches JUICE mission to study Jupiter’s icy moons
Europe successfully launches JUICE mission to study Jupiter’s icy moons
By Mike Wall
published about 3 hours ago
But be patient: JUICE won’t get to the Jovian system until 2031.
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Europe’s first-ever Jupiter mission is officially underway.
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) JUICE spacecraft launched atop an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on Friday (April 14) at 8:14 a.m. EDT (1214 GMT), after a one-day delay caused by the threat of lightning at the launch site. Spacecraft separation occurred some 28 minutes after liftoff.
The liftoff kicked off an ambitious mission to study Jupiter and three of its biggest, most intriguing moons — Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, all of which are thought to harbor big liquid-water oceans beneath their icy shells.
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“The main goal is to understand whether there are habitable environments among those icy moons and around a giant planet like Jupiter,” planetary scientist and JUICE team member Olivier Witasse said during a press conference on April 6.
But the JUICE team and space fans around the world will have to be patient: The spacecraft won’t make it to the Jovian system until 2031.
Related: Here’s what the JUICE
