Sunday 03 / May / 2026
The spacecraft successfully launched from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana at 09:14 local time (12:14 GMT/UTC) on Friday.
Juice, or Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, is the European Space Agency's (ESA) biggest planetary mission to date.
Juice got in contact with home just under an hour after lift-off, and the so-called "acquisition of signal" was announced in ESA's main control room in Darmstadt, Germany.
"Wow! These are the words that every spacecraft operations engineer wants to hear," said Bruno Sousa, ESA's Juice deputy flight director, on hearing that the spacecraft was transmitting a signal after launch.
The spacecraft will explore Jupiter's complex environment and shed light on whether life could exist on three of its moons.
The lift-off was postponed from Thursday to Friday after a threat of lightning at the launch site.
Stephane Israel, the CEO of Arianespace, the company in charge of the Ariane 5 rocket carrying Juice out of Earth's atmosphere, described the delayed lift-off as an "absolutely perfect launch."
What's next after launch?
Once Juice separates from its Ariane 5 rocket just under half an hour after launch, ESA will assume control of the spacecraft after ground stations pick up the mission’s first words.
Juice’s 85-square meter solar arrays, which stretch out to the length of a basketball court, will unfold, to collect as much energy as possible near Jupiter.
It will take up to 17 days for Juice’s antennas and probes to be deployed.
Only then will Juice begin its eight-year journey to the gas giant, which is some 628 million kilometers from Earth.
The probe will use gravitational slingshots from flying close to planets to gain momentum for its journey — Juice will do a fly-by of Earth and Venus before swinging past Earth again in 2029. Juice will arrive at its destination, Jupiter, in 2031.
