Jupiter’s north polar region is coming into view as NASA’s Juno spacecraft approaches the giant planet. This view of Jupiter was taken on August 27, when Juno was 437,000 miles (703,000 kilometers) away. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS)

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA’s Juno mission successfully executed its first of 36 orbital flybys of Jupiter today. The time of closest approach with the gas-giant world was 6:44 a.m. PDT (9:44 a.m. EDT, 13:44 UTC) when Juno passed about 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometers) above Jupiter’s swirling clouds. At the time, Juno was traveling at 130,000 mph (208,000 kilometers per hour) with respect to the planet. This flyby was the closest Juno will get to Jupiter during its prime mission.

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Video Caption: NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured a unique time-lapse movie of the Galilean satellites in motion about Jupiter. The movie begins on June 12th with Juno 10 million miles from Jupiter, and ends on June 29th, 3 million miles distant. The innermost moon is volcanic Io; next in line is the ice-crusted ocean world Europa, followed by massive Ganymede, and finally, heavily cratered Callisto. Galileo observed these moons to change […]

Juno team members celebrate after they received confirmation from the spacecraft that it has successfully entered orbit of Jupiter, Monday, July 4, 2016 in mission control of the Space Flight Operations Facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. The Juno mission launched August 5, 2011 and will orbit the planet for 20 months to collect data on the planetary core, map the magnetic field, and measure the amount of water and ammonia in the atmosphere. (Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — After an almost five-year journey to the solar system’s largest planet, NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit during a 35-minute engine burn. Confirmation that the burn had completed was received on Earth at 8:53 p.m. PDT (11:53 p.m. EDT) Monday, July 4.

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Happy Fourth of July! I’m at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory today where the space agency will attempt to put the Juno spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter this evening. Mission commentary begins at 7:30 p.m. PDT. A 35-minute main engine burn is set to begin at 8:18 p.m. and conclude at 8:53 p.m. Watch the proceedings live at www.nasa.gov. I’m be Tweeting @ www.twitter.com/spacecom Please follow along.

NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Enters Jupiter’s Magnetic Field
NASA’s Juno spacecraft obtained this color view on June 28, 2016, at a distance of 3.9 million miles (6.2 million kilometers) from Jupiter. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS)

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft has entered the planet’s magnetosphere, where the movement of particles in space is controlled by what’s going on inside Jupiter.

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NASA’s solar-powered Juno spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter on July 4, 2016. (Credit: NASA)

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — This Fourth of July, NASA’s solar-powered Juno spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter after an almost five-year journey. News briefings, photo opportunities and other media events will be held at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, and air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

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NASA MISSION UPDATE

NASA is officially moving forward on a mission to conduct an unprecedented, in-depth study of Jupiter.

Called Juno, the mission will be the first in which a spacecraft is placed in a highly elliptical polar orbit around the giant planet to understand its formation, evolution and structure. Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our early solar system.

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