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HomeTech/ScienceNASA's Juno Spacecraft goes back online, completes minor burn

NASA’s Juno Spacecraft goes back online, completes minor burn

Written by DC Agle
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA - National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationPasadena, CA – NASA’s Juno spacecraft at Jupiter has left safe mode and has successfully completed a minor burn of its thruster engines in preparation for its next close flyby of Jupiter.

Mission controllers commanded Juno to exit safe mode Monday, October 24th, with confirmation of safe mode exit received on the ground at 10:05am PDT (1:05pm EDT). The spacecraft entered safe mode on October 18th when a software performance monitor induced a reboot of the spacecraft’s onboard computer. The team is still investigating the cause of the reboot and assessing two main engine check valves.

This artist's rendering shows NASA's Juno spacecraft making one of its close passes over Jupiter.  (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
This artist’s rendering shows NASA’s Juno spacecraft making one of its close passes over Jupiter. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

“Juno exited safe mode as expected, is healthy and is responding to all our commands,” said Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “We anticipate we will be turning on the instruments in early November to get ready for our December flyby.”

In preparation for that close flyby of Jupiter, Juno executed an orbital trim maneuver Tuesday at 11:51am PDT (2:51pm EDT) using its smaller thrusters. The burn, which lasted just over 31 minutes, changed Juno’s orbital velocity by about 5.8 mph (2.6 meters per second) and consumed about 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms) of propellant.

Juno will perform its next science flyby of Jupiter on December 11th, with time of closest approach to the gas giant occurring at 9:03am PDT (12:03pm EDT). The complete suite of Juno’s science instruments, as well as the JunoCam imager, will be collecting data during the upcoming flyby.

“We are all excited and eagerly anticipating this next pass close to Jupiter,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “The science collected so far has been truly amazing.”

The Juno spacecraft launched on August 5th, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and arrived at Jupiter on July 4th, 2016. During its mission of exploration, Juno soars low over the planet’s cloud tops — as close as about 2,600 miles (4,100 kilometers). During these flybys, Juno probes beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and studies its auroras to learn more about the planet’s origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.

More information on the Juno mission is available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/juno

The public can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:

http://www.facebook.com/NASAJuno

http://www.twitter.com/NASAJuno

Images and information on how members of the public can participate in JunoCam’s mission, can be found at:

www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam

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