Overview
- The European Space Agency’s JUICE spacecraft performed a successful gravity-assist flyby on Monday, gaining about 3.5 km/s of speed and a roughly 20° trajectory deflection after passing about 8,640 km above the Indian Ocean.
- Mission navigation teams intensified tracking from 17 August and required only one small pre‑flyby trajectory correction in the four weeks before closest approach, which operators say saved most of the propellant reserved for the maneuver.
- Flight teams used the encounter as an operational testbed, turning on key instruments to collect magnetotail magnetic-field and particle measurements and to gather camera and spectrometer data for calibration.
- Science and engineering teams are now processing telemetry and instrument datasets, with high-resolution JANUS images and spectra expected to be released in the coming weeks.
- JUICE will continue tracking through 10 October, return for a final Earth flyby in January 2029, and then head for Jupiter for a 2031 arrival that will include about 35 moon flybys under an ESA-led program with NASA, JAXA and Israel Space Agency contributions.