Launch date: August 5, 2011

Speed on orbit: 0.17 km/s

Max speed: 38,000 km/h

Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin

Cost: 1.1 billion USD (2011)

NASA is celebrating Independence Day this year by putting a spacecraft into orbit around Jupiter. The space agency’s Juno mission is slated to arrive at the massive planet on the night of July 4th, after having traveled across more than 1.7 billion miles of space over the past five years. Once Juno arrives, the probe’s main engine will fire, slowing the spacecraft down and placing it into orbit around Jupiter. It’s an important event for the mission, especially since NASA has only one shot at getting it right. If Juno flies past Jupiter, the mission will be blown. http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/30/12059470/nasa-juno-mission-jupiter-orbit-study-history

Look at this amazing NASA animation https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/main/index.html

Explore the mindboggeling science and technological achievements. Last not least the almost inhuman craftsmanship to put this all seamlessly to work

or this from just 10h ago http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6550

"We've just crossed the boundary into Jupiter's home turf," said Juno Principal Investigator Scott Bolton of Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio. "We're closing in fast on the planet itself and already gaining valuable data.

"The solar wind blows past all the planets at a speed of about a million miles per hour, and where it hits an obstacle, there's all this turbulence."

Topic already running here.

/Closed.