ESA mission – Jupiter probe “Juice” launched for the second time – News

• The “Juice” probe of the European Space Agency ESA has launched its second attempt in the direction of Jupiter.
• On Thursday, the first attempt had to be canceled due to the risk of a lightning strike.
• The launch took place from the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana.

The postponement was announced on Thursday just minutes before the planned launch from ESA’s control room in Darmstadt, where several prominent figures had gathered. Including the Belgian King Philippe and the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

The journey of the “Juice” probe of the European Space Agency ESA is expected to take eight years. In 2031, it should arrive at Jupiter, 700 million kilometers away. The probe is to be catapulted into the sky using an Ariane 5 launch vehicle. The name «Juice» stands for «Yupiter ICy Moons Eexplorer».

The scientists at ESA hope that the mission will provide them with important insights into Jupiter and its moons: the question at stake is whether life could exist on them. This is ESA’s farthest-reaching mission to date.

The probe has scientific instruments on board with which it is to take a look at the moons “Europa”, “Kallisto” and “Ganymede”. Among other things, radar and laser measurements are planned in the flyby.

Bern disappointment

“It was disappointing,” commented astrophysicist Audrey Vorburger at the University of Bern via video link. The native of Bern is a co-investigator on the “Juice” mission. “The time window for such a launch is one second, and if the weather is unfavorable in that second, the launch will be postponed,” she explained.

The physicist André Galli, who followed the launch from Bern’s alma mater and for ten years at the one carried by the probe, was similarly nervous Mass spectrometer NIM is working. “We have to be patient until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and then for eight years until the probe finally arrives at Jupiter,” said the researcher.