When contact finally was confirmed close to an hour into the flight, Mission Control in Germany declared: “The spacecraft is alive!”
- A European spacecraft rocketed away Friday on a decadelong quest to explore Jupiter and three of its icy moons that could hold buried oceans.
Then in perhaps the most impressive feat of all, Juice will attempt to go into orbit around Ganymede: No spacecraft has ever orbited a moon other than our own. It can’t find life, “but Juice will be identifying the habitability of these icy moons around Jupiter,” he added.It will swoop within 125 miles of Callisto and 250 miles of Europa and Ganymede, completing 35 flybys while circling Jupiter. Then it will hit the brakes to orbit Ganymede, the primary target of the 1.6 billion-euro mission .
“The ocean worlds in our solar system are the most likely to have possible life, so these large moons of Jupiter are prime candidates to search,” said Sheppard, a moon hunter who’s helped discover well over 100 in the outer solar system. Belgium’s King Philippe and Prince Gabriel, and a pair of astronauts — France’s Thomas Pesquet and Germany’s Matthias Maurer — were among the spectators in French Guiana. Thursday’s launch attempt was nixed by the threat of lightning.
Juice’s sensitive electronics are encased in lead to protect against radiation. The 14,000-pound spacecraft also is wrapped with thermal blankets — temperatures near Jupiter hover around minus 380 degrees Fahrenheit . And its solar panels stretch 88 feet tip to tip to soak in as much sunlight that far from the sun.
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