Earth Flyby: Europe's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) | Jupiter Arrival in 2031

Earth Flyby: Europe's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) | Jupiter Arrival in 2031

On September 28, 2026, the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) successfully completed a gravity assist flyby of Earth. Flight controllers guided the spacecraft close to our home planet to increase its velocity by 3.5 km/s and deflect its trajectory by an angle of 20°. As JUICE flew just 8640 km above the Indian Ocean, it snapped a series of images with its onboard monitoring cameras, giving us a unique ‘JUICE eye view’ of our home planet.

JUICE is the first interplanetary spacecraft to the outer Solar System planets not launched by the United States and the first intended to orbit a moon other than Earth's Moon. It was launched by the European Space Agency from its Guiana Space Center in French Guiana in April 2023. Airbus was the main contractor. It is expected to reach Jupiter in July 2031 after four gravity assists and eight years of travel. In December 2034, the spacecraft will enter orbit around Ganymede for its close-up science mission. Its period of operations will overlap with NASA's Europa Clipper mission, launched in October 2024.

JUICE’s monitoring cameras provide 1024 x 1024 pixel snapshots that can be processed in color. Their main purpose is to monitor the spacecraft’s various booms and antennas, especially during the challenging period after launch. The photos they captured of Earth during the flyby are a bonus.

In the first seconds of the video we see a view from Juice monitoring camera 2—or JMC2—with Earth appearing as a thin crescent at the bottom right of the frame. Around ten seconds in, we switch to a view from JMC1, with almost the entire disc of Earth visible at the top right of the frame. The large land mass that we see is Africa. Even the Moon is visible as a tiny grey dot to Earth’s right. At the very end of the video, JMC1 gives us a final view of Earth in the distance as it flies away on September 29.

Read more about the flyby: 
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Juice/Successful_Earth_flyby_improves_Juice_s_course_to_Jupiter

Read more about Juice’s monitoring cameras: 
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/05/A_guide_to_Juice_s_monitoring_cameras

Credits: European Space Agency (ESA)/Juice/JMC
Acknowledgments: Simeon Schmauß
Duration: 55 seconds
Release Date: Oct. 2, 2026

#NASA #ESA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planets #Earth #Jupiter #Moons #Europa #Callisto #Ganymede #JUICE #JUICEMission #InterplanetarySpacecraft #GravitationalAssists #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #JupiterExploration #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video