“We are going to Jupiter. Get ready for it” is heard in the ESA control room.
Yesterday we talked a little about ESA Juice Mission, click here if you lost the post. However, due to bad weather conditions, the launch was delayed and today, at 14:14 CEST, the spacecraft was finally launched onboard an Ariane 5 rocket from ESA's Spaceport in French Guyana: Kourou.
Ariane 5 was the same rocket that launched the James Webb Space Telescope, more than one year ago. However, while JSWT is already operative, Juice will be kept in a 'stand-by' state for all the coasting leg up to Jupiter's orbit, which will be reached by the spacecraft not before that seven and a half years!
“ESA, with its international partners, is on its way to Jupiter,” says ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher. “JUICE's spectacular launch carries with it the vision and ambition of those who conceived the mission decades ago, the skill and passion of everyone who has built this incredible machine, the drive of our flight operations team, and the curiosity of the global science community. Together, we will keep pushing the boundaries of science and exploration in order to answer humankind’s biggest questions.”
We will talk more about ESA's JUICE Mission in the next SpaceInfo Newsletters, so if you want to know more and stay current about this mission and other, join the SpaceInfo Club here. Membership is free!
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