JUICE

What is JUICE?

Probes & telescopes· Launched 2023-04-14 – arrival 2031-07 planned (cruising). ESA's icy-moons explorer reaches Jupiter in 2031 and will become the first spacecraft ever to orbit another planet's moon — Ganymede — in 2034.

The orbit of JUICE at this moment: https://nowsky.org/solar/orbit?fw=probe%3Ajuice&sp=12 — replayed live, no login.

Mission timeline

1. 14 Apr 2023JUICE launch — to the icy moons
2. 15 Jul 2031JUICE arrives at Jupiter(planned)

Spacecraft specs

Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.

Frequently asked

When did JUICE launch?

2023-04-14.

What is the next milestone for JUICE?

15 Jul 2031 — JUICE arrives at Jupiter.

In one line, what is JUICE?

Probes & telescopes — ESA's icy-moons explorer reaches Jupiter in 2031 and will become the first spacecraft ever to orbit another planet's moon — Ganymede — in 2034.

The price of a Jupiter probe passing Venus — heat

JUICE was built for the dark, cold environment of Jupiter, yet its route required a Venus flyby in August 2025. At Venus, sunlight is twice as strong as at Earth and fifty times stronger than at Jupiter. The sunward side of the spacecraft therefore carries multilayer insulation and shielding to protect the instruments during the pass, and JUICE flew by Venus using its high-gain antenna as a sunshade to keep the body in shadow.

The flyby itself was for speed, but because of the heat most of JUICE's instruments were switched off during the Venus pass, with only a few such as the magnetometer running to gather data on Venus's magnetosphere. After arrival at Jupiter the opposite problem — heater power to keep instruments alive below −200 °C — dominates the design. That one spacecraft must survive both the hot inner solar system and the cold outer one is the hidden cost of a gravity-assist cruise.

The mission in depth

ESA's JUICE — JUpiter ICy moons Explorer — carries one question: are the icy moons of a giant planet habitable worlds? It will sweep past Europa and Callisto, then settle at Ganymede to dig in.

Launched in 2023, it rides an eight-year detour: the first-ever lunar–Earth double gravity assist (August 2024), then Venus (August 2025) and Earth twice more (September 2026, January 2029) before Jupiter arrival in July 2031.

In December 2034 it enters Ganymede orbit — the first time any spacecraft orbits another planet's moon. Replay the flyby chain in the Orbit view.

JUICE and Europa Clipper split the job: while Clipper skims Europa dozens of times, JUICE will settle into orbit around Ganymede in 2034 — the first spacecraft ever to orbit another planet's moon. En route it banks speed with one Venus and two Earth flybys, and in August 2024 it pulled off history's first lunar-Earth double gravity assist.

Related

Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.