Kourou. At 14:00 UTC today, JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) spread its wings following the Ariane 5 successful lift-off two hours earlier. The ESA spacecraft operations team at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, took control of the spacecraft and confirmed reception of the first telemetry and the smooth deployment of the solar arrays. The Airbus-built JUICE is now officially on its way to Jupiter!
JUICE: a European shared success
Bringing together 80 partners across 23 countries and harnessing the brainpower of 2,000+ people, Airbus has designed and built JUICE under contract to the European Space Agency (ESA).
On its over 5 billion kilometre long journey, the 6.2 tonne JUICE spacecraft will make a series of flybys of Callisto, Ganymede and Europa, collecting data to try to understand whether there is any possibility that the moons and their subsurface oceans could host microbial life. Carrying 10 state-of-the-art scientific instruments, including cameras, spectrometers, an ice-penetrating radar, an altimeter, a radio-science experiment, a particle package and various magnetic and electric field sensors, the JUICE spacecraft will complete a unique 4-year tour of the Jupiter system.
JUICE is due to arrive at Jupiter in 2031 after a series of gravity slingshots from Venus and Earth to propel it on its way.
Airbus has a long legacy of supporting the European Space Agency with all its interplanetary missions. These missions present unique challenges which require pushing space technologies to the limit, and JUICE is no exception, with the largest solar arrays ever built for a science mission.
