Journey to Jupiter: JUICE slingshots by Earth en route to Venus after historic flyby

The European Space Agency's JUICE spacecraft has completed a historic flyby of Earth and the moon. In a world first, the gravity of Earth was used to send the spacecraft towards Venus from where it will take a shortcut to Jupiter through the inner Solar System. JUICE was launched on April 14, 2023.

Once it reaches Venus, it will conduct a flyby of the second planet from the sun, pinging it back to Earth. Two more gravity assists will happen in 2026 and 2029, after which JUICE will move towards Jupiter and its moons. JUICE is targeting to be on Jupiter by July 2031.

"The gravity assist flyby was flawless; everything went without a hitch, and we were thrilled to see Juice coming back so close to Earth," JUICE Spacecraft Operations Manager Ignacio Tanco said in a statement.

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Juice also clicked some fascinating photos of Earth when it flew just 6840 km above Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. It used its onboard monitoring cameras to take the pictures and collected scientific data with eight of its ten instruments. It earlier took photos of moon as well.

All these flybys will help JUICE reach Jupiter using minimal fuel as the gravitational tides of planets and moon can help slingshot the spacecraft toward its final destination. The flyby required ultra-precise, real-time navigation, and has helped save around 150 kilogrammes of fuel. With this, JUICE can now get much closer to the Jovian moon Ganymede than planned.

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“Thanks to very precise navigation by ESA’s Flight Dynamics team, we managed to use only a tiny fraction of the propellant reserved for this flyby. This will add to the margins we keep for a rainy day, or to extend the science mission once we get to Jupiter,” adds Ignacio.

JUICE's camera JANUS takes pictures of Earth and Moon

Juice also clicked some fascinating photos when it flew just 6840 km above Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. It used its onboard monitoring cameras to take pictures and collected scientific data with eight of its ten instruments. It had earlier taken pictures of the moon.

ESA said that it expects to publish images and spectra collected by some of Juice’s instruments in the next weeks. This includes high-resolution images of the Moon and Earth clicked by Juice’s scientific camera, JANUS.

Juice’s speed increased by 0.9 km/s relative to the Sun following the lunar flyby. The flyby of Earth reduced Juice’s speed by 4.8 km/s relative to the Sun, from where its trajectory changed, directing it towards Venus.