Finally, it is not for Thursday. We thought the lights were green for an eight-year odyssey, but “risk of lightning” decided otherwise. The departure of the European space probe Juice has been postponed to a few seconds of its takeoff. It is finally Friday, April 14 that she should fly to Jupiter and its icy moons, in search of habitable environments for extraterrestrial life forms. This live is over.
Penultimate takeoff for Ariane 5. Flagship mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons explorer) must take off from Kourou, in French Guiana, aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, which will be the penultimate flight before being replaced by Ariane 6.
A cruise of 628 million kilometers. The probe weighing more than six tons is installed, solar panels folded, in the fairing of the launcher. It will separate from the rocket 28 minutes after takeoff, at an altitude of 1,500 km. Juice will then begin its long cruise to Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, approximately 628 million kilometers from Earth.
Good weather conditions were however announced. This was announced on Wednesday by Marie-Anne Clair, the director of the Guiana Space Center, in the Jupiter control room, where personalities, including the King of the Belgians Philippe and the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, were gathered.