Mission Elapsed Time:
495 Days (1.36 yrs.) 09 Hours 39 Minutes
Time of Earth Flyby Gravity Assist:
300 Days (.82 yrs.) 06 Hours 17 Minutes
Juno's Time of Arrival:
1300 Days ( 3.55 yrs.) 00 Hours 18 Minutes
Juno is currently headed back toward the inner solar system for a planned Earth flyby gravity assist maneuver on Oct. 9, 2013. The gravity assist will give the spacecraft the boost it needs to reach Jupiter, where it is slated to arrive in July 2016.
Juno's Current Position 12/12/12
As of Dec. 10, Juno was approximately 216 million miles (347 million kilometers) from Earth, with a one-way radio signal travel time of approximately 19 minutes. The spacecraft has now traveled 561 million miles (903 million kilometers, or 6.03 AU) since launch. Juno is currently traveling at a velocity of 10 miles (16 kilometers) per second relative to the sun. Velocity relative to Earth is 23 miles (37 kilometers) per second. The Juno spacecraft is in excellent health and is operating nominally. Four instruments -- JEDI, MWR, Waves, and MAG -- are turned on.
Now for a little past history about the first mission to Jupiter Galileo:
At Kennedy Space Center, Oct. 18, 1989: A roar shakes the ground as Space Shuttle Atlantis climbs into the sky. The Galileo spacecraft rides in the payload bay, ready to begin a long journey into the realm of the outer planets. Its mission is to study Jupiter and its moons in more detail than any previous spacecraft.
Galileo
The spacecraft is named in honor of the first modern astronomer --- Galileo Galilei. He made the first observations of the heavens using a telescope in 1610. What compels us to explore Jupiter? The giant colorful planet holds clues to help us understand how the Sun and planets formed more than 4.5 billion years ago. One of Jupiter's moons has active volcanoes and others have strange icy terrain. How does these strange worlds compare with Earth?
Galileo Spacecraft Arriving at Jupiter
Galileo arrived at Jupiter in December 1995. As fascinating data poured in from the orbiting spacecraft and its atmospheric probe, we knew it was just the beginning. Galileo changed the way we look at our solar system. The spacecraft was the first to fly past an asteroid and the first to discover a moon of an asteroid. It provided the only direct observations of a comet colliding with a planet.
Galileo Ganymede
Galileo was the first to measure Jupiter's atmosphere with a descent probe and the first to conduct long-term observations of the Jovian system from orbit. It found evidence of subsurface saltwater on Europa, Ganymede and Callisto and revealed the intensity of volcanic activity on Io.
Galileo Callisto
The history of Jupiter exploration began with the invention of the telescope in the early seventeenth century. The first telescopes were not very powerful, and the views were not very sharp. But over the next three hundred years, the telescope was continually improved, and became our primary tool for observing the stars and planets.
Galileo Io
Human explorers have taken dangerous journeys to the far corners of Earth and even to the Moon. But to explore the outer reaches of the solar system, we send spacecraft equipped with cameras and scientific instruments. In a way, we send extensions of ourselves on these missions.
Galileo moons Thebe, Amalthea and Metis
The cameras becomes our "eyes" to view the other planets up close. Special instruments "see" in infrared, ultraviolet, and other wavelengths of light --- revealing what is invisible to our eyes. Today, we have very large and powerful telescopes. The Hubble Space Telescope, orbiting above Earth's atmosphere, can see far into space. Yet, the planets of our Solar System still hold many mysteries to investigate. NASA's first planetary missions were "fly-bys." The spacecraft simply zoomed by a planet taking pictures or gathering data, and then continued on --- out into deep space.
Great Red Spot Collage:
But orbiting a planet gives us a chance to learn a great deal more about it. The Viking orbiters at Mars and the Magellan orbiter at Venus studied planets in the inner solar system. Galileo was the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter in the outer solar system.
Galileo plunged into Jupiter's crushing atmosphere on Sept. 21, 2003. The spacecraft was purposely put on a collision course with Jupiter because the onboard propellant was nearly depleted and to eliminate any chance of an unwanted impact between the spacecraft and Jupiter's moon Europa, which Galileo discovered and is likely to have a subsurface ocean. The Galileo spacecraft's 14-year odyssey came to an end on Sunday, Sept. 21, when the spacecraft passed into Jupiter's shadow then disintegrated in the planet's dense atmosphere at 11:57 a.m. (PDT). The Deep Space Network tracking station in Goldstone, Calif., received the last signal at 12:43:14 (PDT). The delay is due to the time it takes the signal to travel to Earth.
Galileo is directed to crash into Jupiter and burns up in the atmosphere.
