A new start for the European Juice mission. Liftoff from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana took place shortly after 2 p.m., half an hour earlier than the scheduled takeoff time during the first attempt.
On Thursday, the teams from the Guiana Space Center interrupted operations because of a risk of lightning, while several personalities, including the King of the Belgians Philippe and the French astronauts Thomas Pesquet and German Matthias Maurer, had come to attend the launch from the Jupiter’s control room.
Unlike conventional launches which have a certain margin to take off, the launch window of the Juice probe is close to one second, due to the particular orbit which is targeted. According to the flight schedule, the six-ton probe is to separate from the rocket 27 minutes after takeoff, at an altitude of around 1,500 kilometers.
This will then be the start of an eight-year odyssey for Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer), the flagship mission of the European Space Agency (ESA).