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NASA Updates Coverage for Juno Mission Arrival at Jupiter

June 29, 2016

Launching from Earth in 2011, the Juno spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter in 2016 to study the giant planet from an elliptical, polar orbit.› Full image and caption

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This Fourth of July, NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter after an almost five-year journey.

This Fourth of July, NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter after an almost five-year journey. News briefings and live coverage will be held at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and air live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

On the evening of July 4, Juno will perform a suspenseful orbit insertion maneuver, a 35-minute burn of its main engine, to slow the spacecraft by about 1,212 mph (542 meters per second) so it can be captured into the gas giant's orbit. Once in Jupiter's orbit, the spacecraft will circle the Jovian world 37 times during 20 months, skimming to within 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) above the cloud tops. This is the first time a spacecraft will orbit the poles of Jupiter, providing new answers to ongoing mysteries about the planet's core, composition and magnetic fields.

NASA TV Events Schedule

Thursday, June 16

11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) -- Mission status briefing at NASA Headquarters in Washington (archived at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/88398644)

Thursday, June 30

10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) -- Mission overview news briefing at JPL

11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) -- Mission outreach briefing at JPL

Monday, July 4 -- Orbit Insertion Day

9 a.m. PDT (Noon EDT) -- Pre-orbit insertion briefing at JPL

7:30 p.m. PDT (10:30 p.m. EDT) -- Orbit insertion and NASA TV commentary begin

10 p.m. PDT (1 a.m. EDT on July 5) -- Post-orbit insertion briefing at JPL

To watch all of these events online, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

http://www.ustream.tv/nasa

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2

Live coverage on orbit insertion day also will be available online via Facebook Live at:

http://www.facebook.com/nasa

http://www.facebook.com/nasajpl

JPL manages the Juno mission for NASA. The mission's principal investigator is Scott Bolton of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The mission is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, managed at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft.

Learn more about the Juno mission, and get an up-to-date schedule of events, at:

http://www.nasa.gov/juno

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter/junotoolkit

Follow the mission on social media at:

http://www.facebook.com/NASAJuno

http://www.twitter.com/NASAJuno

For NASA TV streaming video and schedules, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv