Mission Atlas
← Mission directory

Mission record

Juno

Also known as Juno Orbiter

NASA, ASI · Launched

Explore trajectory

Active · Active

NASA New Frontiers orbiter studying Jupiter from a highly elliptical near-polar orbit since July 2016, measuring the planet's gravity and magnetic fields, deep-atmosphere water and ammonia, and its polar magnetosphere and aurorae; in its extended mission it has also made close passes of Ganymede, Europa, Io and the inner moon Thebe.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Atlas V 551
Launch site
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Countries
United States, Italy
Mission types
Orbiter

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Launch on Atlas V 551 from Cape Canaveral

    Juno launched at 16:25 UTC (12:25 p.m. EDT) on an Atlas V 551 with a Centaur upper stage.

    Earth

  2. Gravity assist

    Earth gravity-assist flyby

    Single Earth flyby with a closest approach of about 559 km at 19:21 UT.

    Earth

  3. Orbit insertion

    Jupiter arrival / JOI to the 53.5-day capture orbit

    JPL Horizons mission metadata lists 02:30 UTC as Juno's Jupiter arrival and associates it with Jupiter orbit insertion into the 53.5-day capture orbit. NASA/JPL separately reports that confirmation of the 35-minute insertion burn reached Earth at 03:53 UTC. The available records do not specify whether 02:30 denotes burn start or another arrival convention, so it is preserved as the published spacecraft-event epoch without deriving an exact burn end.

    Jupiter

  4. Milestone

    Earth receives confirmation that Juno entered Jupiter orbit

    NASA/JPL reports a 35-minute insertion burn and says confirmation that it had completed was received on Earth at 03:53 UTC. This is the Earth-received confirmation epoch, not a Juno spacecraft-state time.

    Jupiter

  5. Milestone

    NASA extends the mission through 2025

    NASA extended Juno with 42 additional orbits, adding exploration of Jupiter's rings and flybys of Ganymede, Europa and Io.

  6. Flyby

    Close flyby of Ganymede

    On June 7, 2021 (orbit 34) Juno passed within 645 miles (1,038 km) of Ganymede's surface at 1:35 p.m. EDT; the encounter reduced Juno's orbital period from about 53 days to 43 days. Only US local time is given by the source, so the event is recorded at day precision.

  7. Flyby

    Close flyby of Europa

    Closest approach on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022 at 2:36 a.m. PDT (5:36 a.m. EDT) at a distance of about 219 miles (352 km); the flyby reduced Juno's orbital period from 43 to 38 days. Only US local time is given by the source, so the event is recorded at day precision.

  8. Flyby

    First close Io flyby (perijove 57)

    Juno came within roughly 930 miles (1,500 km) of Io's surface, the nearest view of Io since the Galileo orbiter.

  9. Flyby

    Second close Io flyby (perijove 58)

    A second close pass of Io; Io's gravitational pull during this flyby reduced Juno's orbital period around Jupiter to 33 days.

  10. Flyby

    Close pass of the inner moon Thebe

    Juno's Stellar Reference Unit imaged Thebe from about 3,100 miles (5,000 km) at roughly 1.9 miles (3 km) per pixel, demonstrating that the spacecraft was still operating in 2026.

Mission architecture

Vehicles

Trajectory record

Time-dependent navigation trajectory

Source states place the model at the selected time. Reconstructed flight, estimates, predictions and historical mission plans are identified by interval; gaps remain visible.

J2000 · Sun-centered display · positions interpolated between source states

Coverage: August 5, 2011 to September 30, 2028

Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.

  • Juno: Reconstructed · August 5, 2011 to September 30, 2028

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through October 5, 2026