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Juno Spacecraft Cruise Trajectory

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NASA

Jul 28, 2011
Image Article
Juno Spacecraft Cruise Trajectory
This graphic shows Juno's trajectory, or flight path, from Earth to Jupiter. The spacecraft travels around the sun, to a point beyond the orbit of Mars where it fires its main engine a couple of times. These deep space maneuvers set up the Earth flyby maneuver that gives Juno the boost in velocity it needs to coast all the way to Jupiter.

This graphic shows Juno’s trajectory, or flight path, from Earth to Jupiter. The Juno spacecraft is scheduled to depart from Earth in August 2011. The spacecraft travels around the sun, to a point beyond the orbit of Mars where it fires its main engine a couple of times. These deep space maneuvers set up the Earth flyby maneuver that occurs approximately two years after launch. The Earth flyby gives Juno the boost in velocity it needs to coast all the way to Jupiter. Juno arrives at Jupiter in July 2016.
Juno’s principal investigator is Scott Bolton of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the mission. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver, Colo., is building the spacecraft. The Italian Space Agency, Rome, is contributing an infrared spectrometer instrument and a portion of the radio science experiment.Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech