Brief:
- Satellite ready to leave Europe before its launch in April.
- Galileo tribute plaque unveiled in Airbus’ cleanroom and mounted on the spacecraft.
- ESA’s mission will study Jupiter’s three largest icy moons and the Jovian system’s magnetic fields.
PRESS RELEASE — Toulouse / January 20, 2023 – The Airbus-built JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer mission) spacecraft will shortly leave Toulouse, France, for Kourou, French Guiana, for lift-off on an Ariane 5 in April 2023. Shipment is expected in early February.
“With JUICE’s departure for the launch site fast approaching, we look back at its long Earthly journey through various Airbus sites in Europe towards final integration and involving close to 500 Airbus employees who prepared the spacecraft for its eight-year cruise,” said Cyril Cavel, JUICE Project Manager at Airbus Defence and Space.
“It has been an incredible adventure, along with more than 80 companies across Europe, to bring ESA’s vision to life and ultimately study Jupiter and its icy moons in fine detail.”
On its more than 2 billion-kilometre long journey, the 6.2 ton JUICE spacecraft will collect data on the icy moons to try to understand whether there is any possibility that these moons could host microbial life. Carrying 10 state-of-the-art scientific instruments, including cameras, spectrometers, an ice-penetrating radar, an altimeter, a radio-science experiment, and sensors, the JUICE spacecraft will complete a unique tour of the Jupiter system that will include in-depth studies of three potentially ocean-bearing moons: Ganymede, Europa and Callisto.During its four year-long mission, JUICE will spend nine months orbiting the icy moon Ganymede analysing its nature and evolution, characterising its subsurface ocean, and investigating its potential habitability.
After being selected by ESA as prime contractor in 2015 Airbus has led a pan European industrial consortium to design and build this unique spacecraft.
For more information about JUICE, please visit our dedicated pages:
https://www.airbus.com/en/products-services/space/exploration/solar-system/juice
Ralph Heinrich
Head of External Communications – Airbus Space Systems
Guilhem Boltz
External Communications – Airbus Space Systems, France
Jeremy Close
External Communications – Airbus Space Systems, UK
Francisco Lechón
External Communications – Airbus Space Systems, Spain
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