The European probe JOS, which will study Jupiter and three of its largest moons, launched on Friday (April 14) from the European Space Agency (ESA) in Kourou, French Guiana. Twenty-seven minutes later and at an altitude of about 1,500 kilometers, the probe successfully separated from the Ariane 5 rocket, confirming the launch’s success.
The journey will take eight years! The juice should reach Jupiter in July 2031, make 35 flybys of the icy moons (discovered by Galileo 400 years ago) and reach Ganymede in December 2034. The first scientific data should arrive in 2032.
“JUICE is the most complex probe ever sent to Jupiter,” said Josef Ashbacher, director general of the European Space Agency, in the control room of the Space Center in French Guiana, where the head of the Portuguese Space Agency, Riccardo Conde, represented Portugal.
Juice’s mission is to study the largest planet in the solar system and its moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, where scientists believe there may be liquid water, an essential ingredient for life as we know it, beneath the ice crusts on the surface. .
This probe includes components made by Portuguese companies, and Flight Engineer Bruno Souza is the Director of Flight Operations. The mission also had antenna engineer Louis Rouleau test two antennas, a radar sounder, and a radio telescope. They both work for the European Space Agency.
text: Lusa Edited by Sandra Alves
filming: Judy Amit/AFP
