ESA’s Juice spacecraft performs one of most important manoeuvres en route to Jupiter

The European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft performed one of the largest and most important manoeuvres en route to Jupiter on 17 November 2023.

The spacecraft used its main engine to change its orbit around the Sun and put itself on the correct trajectory for next summer's Earth-Moon double gravity assist. The August 24 flyby, called Lunar-Earth Gravity Assist (LEGA), will be the first of its kind when the spacecraft will first pass by the Moon to give it an extra kick and make the flyby of Earth that takes place 1.5 days later.

Following this Earth-Moon flyby, Juice will fly by Venus in 2025 and make two further flybys of Earth in 2026 and 2029 (both without the additional boost from the Moon). According to ESA, each flyby will provide the spacecraft with more energy than could be achieved by burning a reasonable amount of fuel - energy that will help Juice climb towards Jupiter against the pull of the Sun's gravity.

This evening, 17 November 2023, the @ESA_JUICE spacecraft just carried out one of the largest and most important manoeuvres in its eight-year journey to Jupiter 👇🔗https://t.co/tdpV8ZPQa2 pic.twitter.com/1SDrDQtOCi

— ESA (@esa) November 17, 2023

Juice launched from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana on 14 April 2023 and will arrive in the Jupiter system in 2031. The primary objective of this mission is to make detailed observations of the giant gas and three of its ocean-bearing moons - namely Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

"Missions to the giant gas planets, such as Juice, Europa Clipper, Galileo or Juno, would be little more than giant fuel tanks if they had to store all the energy needed to overcome the Sun's gravity by themselves. Instead, they make use of 'gravity-assist' or 'flyby' manoeuvres to gain energy by swinging through the strong gravitational fields of various planets on the way," the agency explained in a post.