Following launch and separation from the rocket, ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, confirmed acquisition of signal via the New Norcia ground station in Australia at 15:04 CEST. The spacecraft’s vast 27 m long solar arrays unfurled into their distinctive cross shapes at 15:33 CEST, ensuring Juice can travel to the outer Solar System. The completion of this critical operation marked the launch a success.

“ESA, with its international partners, is on its way to Jupiter,” says ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher. “Juice’s spectacular launch carries with it the vision and ambition of those who conceived the mission decades ago, the skill and passion of everyone who has built this incredible machine, the drive of our flight operations team, and the curiosity of the global science community. Together, we will keep pushing the boundaries of science and exploration in order to answer humankind’s biggest questions.”

“It is thanks to the leadership of ESA and the effort and commitment of hundreds of European industries and scientific institutions that the Juice mission has become a reality,” says Giuseppe Sarri, ESA’ s Juice Project Manager. “Together with our partners NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Israel Space Agency, who have also contributed hardware or scientific instrumentation, we have reached this much-awaited launch milestone.”

From Galileo to Juice

Jupiter, shining brightly in the night sky, has sparked fascination ever since our ancient ancestors first looked up. Astronomer Galileo Galilei brought Jupiter into focus in 1610, observing the planet through a telescope for the first time and discovering its orbiting moons. His observations overturned the long-held idea that everything in the heavens revolved around Earth. Centuries later, Juice – which carries a commemorative plaque in honour of Galileo’s discoveries – will see Jupiter and its moons in a way that Galileo couldn’t even have dreamt of.

Thanks to the legacy of previous Jupiter missions we know that three of the planet’s largest moons – Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – hold quantities of water buried under their surfaces in volumes far greater than in Earth’s oceans. These planet-sized moons offer us tantalising hints that conditions for life could exist other than here on our ‘pale blue dot’, and Juice is equipped to bring us one step closer to answering this alluring question.

“Over 400 years ago, Galileo discovered moons orbiting Jupiter – news that shocked the renaissance world and revolutionised humankind’s understanding of our place in the Universe,” says Carole Mundell, ESA’s Director of Science. “Today, we have sent a suite of ground-breaking science instruments on a journey to those moons that will give us an exquisite close-up view that would have been unimaginable to previous generations. Juice carries the dreams of anyone who’s ever gazed up at Jupiter shining brightly in the night sky and wondered about our origins.

“The treasure trove of data that ESA Juice will provide will enable the science community worldwide to dig in and uncover the mysteries o