NASA Juno spacecraft reached the Jupiter's orbit

The Juno spacecraft started from Cape Caneveral in Florida on August 5, 2011 and it reached its destination, Jupiter planet, on July 4, 2016. First, it turned slowly away from the sun and it increased its rotation speed from 2 to 5 rpm in order to stabilize it before the orbit insertion burn. Everything was prepared and Juno started its most important task to slow down and reach the orbit. It was done thanks to 35-minute 645-Newton Leros-1b main engine burn that changed the Juno's speed to 1212 mph (1950 km/h, 542 m/s).

 

 

The rotation speed was decreased back from 5 to 2 rpm, the spacecraft turned back towards the sun and it is able to get its energy from the sun using its 18,698 solar cells. The spacecraft immediately sent the telemetry data back to the Earth. In the beginning, Juno will use 53.5-day orbit.

 

First few months will be spent calibrating the space instruments and testing. After that, the Juno will enter normal 14-day orbit and will start the main data collection phase. Such a situation is planned for October 19 but the JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) team figured out the way how to collect some sort of data even before that date.

 

Source: nasa.gov, JPL NASA