NASA’s Juno spacecraft completes Jupiter rendezvous burn

Last month, Juno established a new distance record for solar-powered spacecraft, shattering the previous mark held by the ESA’s Rosetta orbiter by reaching the 493 million mile mark.

The National Aeronautics & Space Administration’s (NASA’s) solar-powered Juno spacecraft now has Jupiter more squarely in its sights ahead of its scheduled July 4th arrival at the solar system’s biggest planet.

“This is the first of two trajectory adjustments that fine tune Juno’s orbit around the Sun, perfecting our rendezvous with Jupiter on July 4”, said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, US.

During the burn, the thrusters of the Juno spacecraft consumed almost 0.6 kg of fuel, changing the speed of the spacecraft by 0.31 meters per second. At the time of the engine burn, NASA’s Juno spacecraft was located approximately 51 million miles from Jupiter. The next trajectory correction maneuver is scheduled for May 31, told the DispatchTribunal News.

The Juno mission was launched with great excitement in August 2011. Over the course of its mission Juno will orbit the gas giant 33 times, dipping periodically to an altitude of only 3,100 miles (5,000 km) above the planet’s chaotic cloud surface. According to NASA the maneuver is the first in the series of many trajectory adjustments that it will be performing to ensure that Juno arrives at the planet as destined. Its main goal involves mapping Jupiter’s gravitational and magnetic fields in precise detail, to help scientists learn about the gas giant’s structure, formation and evolution, mission team members have said. The extensive light-collecting gear is essential to power the probe in dim environment around Jupiter, which is more than five times farther from the Sun than our Earth does.

The solar powered probe also broke a record in January.

“In between our close Jupiter flybys, Juno goes far from the planet, and Jupiter will shrink in JunoCam’s field of view to a size too small to be useful for choosing which features to capture”.

ANALYSIS: Is Jupiter a Soggy Planet? The god Jupiter drew a blanket of clouds around himself for hiding his mischief, and his wife, the goddess Juno succeeded in peering through the clouds, revealing the true nature of Jupiter.