Summary Juice successfully completed a lunar-Earth flyby on its way to Jupiter via Venus using gravity assists. The spacecraft collected data and photos during the flyby, while also receiving energy boosts from the Earth and Venus. Juice, Europe's spacecraft, will explore and study moons of Jupiter in search of extraterrestrial life by 2031.
The Jupiter Ice Moons Explorer (Juice) has successfully completed a world-first lunar-Earth flyby as it takes a "shortcut" to Venus on its way to Jupiter. Juice is now over a year into its 8-year journey through the Solar System on its way to studying the moons of Jupiter in the hope of finding life. Juice will overlap with NASA's Europa Clipper, planned for launch in October 2024 , which will similarly explore Jupiter's moons in search of life in space beyond Earth.
Juice fly-bys the moon and Earth The European Space Agency (ESA) stated: " ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) has successfully completed a world-first lunar-Earth flyby, using the gravity of Earth to send it Venus-bound, on a shortcut to Jupiter through the inner Solar System ." The space agency also said that the spacecraft's closest approach to the moon was at 21:15 UTC on August 19; this guided Juice towards its closest approach to Earth a little over 24 hours later at 21:56 UTC on August 20. " As Juice flew just 6840 km above Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, it snapped a series of images with its onboard monitoring cameras, and collected scientific data with .