NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Enters Orbit Around Jupiter

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Juno Spacecraft

NASA’s Lockheed Martin built Juno Spacecraft successfully entered an elliptical polar orbit around Jupiter on Monday.

The 12 foot wide spaceship traveled through 1.7 billion miles of space in a five year journey to reach the solar system’s largest planet.

Juno Spacecraft RTT News reports:

Jupiter is the solar system’s largest planet, and is more than two-and-a-half times as massive as all of the other planets combined.

The spacecraft’s flight operations were controlled by a joint team at Lockheed Martin’s Mission Support Area near Denver, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The Juno spacecraft was launched on August 5, 2011, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Four days ago, the spacecraft was put into autopilot for the orbit insertion. On Monday, final commands fired the large main engine for a 35-minute burn slowing the spacecraft, which was then captured by Jupiter’s massive gravity and placed into a large elliptical polar orbit. Initially, the orbit is 53 days long, but will be reduced to 14 days long in following months for science observations.

Juno will conduct an in-depth study, with primary goal of improving the understanding of the formation and evolution of the planet and solar system. Over the next 20 months, mission scientists will investigate the planet’s origins, interior structure, deep atmosphere and magnetosphere.

Guy Beutelschies, director of Interplanetary Missions at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said, “Since launch, Juno has operated exceptionally well, and the flawless orbit insertion is a testament to everyone working on Juno and their focus on getting this amazing spacecraft to its destination. NASA now has a science laboratory orbiting Jupiter.”

Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.


NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory YouTube video:

NASA’s Juno probe enters near-perfect orbit around Jupiter:

New Scientist YouTube video:

8 Comments

  1. It seems to be always the same; “if we do this or go there or study this/that, this planet, that planet, comet, asteroid etc etc, we will discover the origins of the universe, of life, time , space, man etc etc”. Isn’t it time for new slogans, these have been worn out, and nobody cares to hear nonsense, distractions and watch theater by puppets of the Elite who all the while sneaker and continue with their in your face agendas, hiding in plain sight. In my teens I used to believe all this stuff, due to youth, trust and gullibility. Since I did an applied physics course mid life, I half awoke to the fakery of science across the board. The only real science, is the brick and mortar stuff where the rubber hits the roads where real products and benefits actually materialize. Space exploration has come to be an excellent platform with which to siphon or launder money to use in the fulfillment of the agendas of humanities decline.

  2. It seems to be always the same; “if we do this or go there or study this/that, this planet, that planet, comet, asteroid etc etc, we will discover the origins of the universe, of life, time , space, man etc etc”. Isn’t it time for new slogans, these have been worn out, and nobody cares to hear nonsense, distractions and watch theater by puppets of the Elite who all the while sneaker and continue with their in your face agendas, hiding in plain sight. In my teens I used to believe all this stuff, due to youth, trust and gullibility. Since I did an applied physics course mid life, I half awoke to the fakery of science across the board. The only real science, is the brick and mortar stuff where the rubber hits the roads where real products and benefits actually materialize. Space exploration has come to be an excellent platform with which to siphon or launder money to use in the fulfillment of the agendas of humanities decline.

  3. LOL At the NASA crew celebrating this awesome CGI rendering. :/ Where’s the actual footage of Jupiter? Why does Jupiter look small and the satellite look huge in the picture and video? Isn’t Jupiter 11x the size of Earth? LOL What a joke. I can’t believe I use to believe this nonsense.

  4. LOL At the NASA crew celebrating this awesome CGI rendering. :/ Where’s the actual footage of Jupiter? Why does Jupiter look small and the satellite look huge in the picture and video? Isn’t Jupiter 11x the size of Earth? LOL What a joke. I can’t believe I use to believe this nonsense.

  5. It is interesting how people who have negligible accomplishments in their life try so hard to denigrate those who actually DO great things. Why don’t these nebbishes get off their sofas and apply their energies to productive occupations? Just jealousy doesn’t explain their vitriol against eminent people.

  6. It is interesting how people who have negligible accomplishments in their life try so hard to denigrate those who actually DO great things. Why don’t these nebbishes get off their sofas and apply their energies to productive occupations? Just jealousy doesn’t explain their vitriol against eminent people.

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