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The European Space Agency’s (ESA) JUICE mission is set to launch today at 5.45 PM IST. Here is everything you need to know about the mission and how you can watch the launch live.
JUICE, or the Jupiter Icy moons Explorer, will make multiple flybys past Jupiter’s moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa before going into orbit around Ganymede. The mission will help scientists understand more about Jupiter and its system, with a focus on finding out whether Ganymede can host life.
You can watch the launch live on ESA Web TV or through the YouTube link below. The live stream will start at 5.15 PM IST and will go on till 8.45 PM IST, ending with the post-launch press briefing.
At 5.45 PM IST, the JUICE spacecraft will launch atop the Ariane 5 rocket. 27 minutes later, at 6.12 PM, JUICE will separate from the Ariane 5 rocket’s upper stage. ESA expects to get the first signal from JUICE as early as 6.21 PM. Further, the space agency expects solar arrays to be completely deployed by 7.25 PM.
In the two weeks after launch, JUICE will deploy all of its antennas and instrument booms. This will be followed by a three-month long period where all of the spacecraft’s scientific instruments will be commissioned.
It will take even longer for its first flyby, which is only set to happen in August 2024. At that time, it will fly by the Moon followed by an Earth flyby about one and a half days later. It does this to take advantage of the Earth-Moon gravitational field to put itself on a course to the Jupiter system.
