ESA’s Juice just used Earth as a slingshot to Jupiter

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. ESA’s Juice just used Earth as a slingshot to Jupiter.

The image was taken by Juice monitoring camera 1 (JMC1) at 13:56 CEST, as Juice was heading away from its closest approach to Earth. This successful flyby of Earth redirected Juice’s path through space to put it on course for another flyby of Earth in 2029. 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.

During the four weeks leading up to the encounter, mission controllers needed to make only one small course correction (out of six opportunities set aside) to place the spacecraft on the precise approach needed to take full advantage of Earth’s gravity. Controllers began monitoring Juice particularly closely on August 17 and will continue that intensive tracking through October 10. Juice Makes a Close Pass Over Earth Juice reached its closest point to Earth at 13:45 CEST (11:45 UTC) on September 28.