The European space agency Esa launched its spacecraft a day late. Their flight to the gas planet Jupiter should take about eight years. The start originally planned for Thursday was canceled due to a risk of thunderstorms. Now the probe could take off from the spaceport in Kourou in French Guiana.
The space probe juice It’s actually called “Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer” because it’s supposed to examine liquid water that sloshes around beneath the icy crusts of Jupiter’s moons. The probe is to head for a total of three satellites of Jupiter: the moons “Europa”, “Kallisto” and “Ganymed”. It is ESA’s most distant target to date.
The Jupiter mission costs more than a billion euros. Esa scientists expect the first measurement results in 2031 juice orbit Venus once and Earth three times to pick up enough speed. Their solar panels with a total size of 85 square meters are to supply energy.