Overview
- Juice, which flew past Earth on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, made its closest approach about 8,640 km above the Indian Ocean and gained roughly 3.5 km/s while its trajectory was deflected by 20°.
- The gravity assist used Earth's motion to add speed without using much fuel, and navigation teams needed only one small correction burn in the four weeks before the encounter to hit the precise approach.
- Engineers used the flyby to test and calibrate instruments and to take images of Earth and the Moon, with high-resolution photos and spectra expected to be released in the coming weeks after team review.
- Juice spent several days traveling through Earth's magnetotail and collected magnetic field and charged-particle data that will be compared with observations from the SMILE mission to link distant magnetotail activity to auroral behavior.
- The spacecraft remains on its eight-year cruise to Jupiter, will return for a final Earth gravity assist in January 2029, and is scheduled to reach Jupiter in 2031 to perform about 35 icy‑moon flybys and later enter orbit around Ganymede.