NASA's Juno Spacecraft Closing in on Jupiter

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NASA's Juno Spacecraft Closing in on Jupiter
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
June, 24, 2016

Today (6/24), at exactly 9:57 and 48 seconds a.m. PDT, NASA's Juno spacecraft
was 5.5 million miles (8.9 million kilometers) from its July 4th appointment
with Jupiter. Over the past two weeks, several milestones occurred that
were key to a successful 35-minute burn of its rocket motor, which will
place the robotic explorer into a polar orbit around the gas giant.

"We have over five years of spaceflight experience and only 10 days to
Jupiter orbit insertion," said Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager from
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "It is a great
feeling to put all the interplanetary space in the rearview mirror and
have the biggest planet in the solar system in our windshield."

On June 11, Juno began transmitting to and receiving data from Earth around
the clock. This constant contact will keep the mission team informed on
any developments with their spacecraft within tens of minutes of it occurring.
On June 20, the protective cover that shields Juno's main engine from
micrometeorites and interstellar dust was opened, and the software program
that will command the spacecraft through the all-important rocket burn
was uplinked.

One of the important near-term events remaining on Juno's pre-burn itinerary
is the pressurization of its propulsion system on June 28. The following
day, all instrumentation not geared toward the successful insertion of
Juno into orbit around Jupiter on July 4 will be turned off.

"If it doesn't help us get into orbit, it is shut down," said Scott Bolton,
Juno's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in
San Antonio. "That is how critical this rocket burn is. And while we will
not be getting images as we make our final approach to the planet, we
have some interesting pictures of what Jupiter and its moons look like
from five-plus million miles away."

The mission optical camera, JunoCam, imaged Jupiter on June 21, 2016,
at a distance of 6.8 million miles (10.9 million kilometers) from the
gas giant. In the image, just to the right of center is Jupiter, with
its distinctive swirling bands of orange, brown and white. To the left
of Jupiter (from right to left) are the planet's four largest moons --
Europa, Io, Callisto and Ganymede. Juno is approaching over Jupiter's
north pole, affording the spacecraft a unique perspective on the Jovian
system. Previous missions that imaged Jupiter on approach saw the system
from much lower latitudes, closer to the planet's equator.

JunoCam is an outreach instrument -- its inclusion in this mission of
exploration was to allow the public to come along for the ride with Juno.
JunoCam's optics were designed to acquire high-resolution views of Jupiter's
poles while the spacecraft is flying much closer to the planet. Juno will
be getting closer to the cloud tops of the planet than any mission before
it, and the image resolution of the massive gas giant will be the best
ever taken by a spacecraft.

All of Juno's instruments, including JunoCam, are scheduled to be turned
back on approximately two days after achieving orbit. JunoCam images are
expected to be returned from the spacecraft for processing and release
to the public starting in late August or early September.

"This image is the start of something great," said Bolton. "In the future
we will see Jupiter's polar auroras from a new perspective. We will see
details in rolling bands of orange and white clouds like never before,
and even the Great Red Spot.

The Juno spacecraft launched on Aug. 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

JPL manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton,
of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. 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.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. The California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA.

More information on the Juno mission is available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/juno

The public can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:

http://www.facebook.com/NASAJuno

http://www.twitter.com/NASAJuno


News Media Contact

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
dwayne....@nasa.gov / laura.l....@nasa.gov

DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
ag...@jpl.nasa.gov

2016-160