ESA’s juice tagged posts

ESA’s Juice spacecraft raced past Earth on September 28, using our planet’s gravity to dramatically reshape its path toward Jupiter without burning much fuel. The flyby changed its direction by 20 degrees and increased its speed by 3.5 km/s, while also giving scientists a rare chance to test its instruments on Earth and the Moon.

The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) made a close pass by Earth on September 28, skimming the outer reaches of the atmosphere and using our planet’s gravity to reshape its path toward Jupiter while consuming very little fuel.

The carefully planned gravity assist changed Juice’s direction by 20° relative to its previous trajectory and increased its speed by 3.5 km/s...