This morning, the European Space Agency announced that they are targeting April 13th for the launch of the agencies JUICE (JUpiter ICy moon Explorer) spacecraft aboard the second last Ariane 5 from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. Initially, teams were targeting April 14th.

JUICE arrived at the Guiana Space Centre on February 8th from its previous home at Airbus' facility in Toulouse, France where the spacecraft was built and rigorously tested. Since its arrival last week, teams at the space centre have been busy getting the spacecraft ready for final integration operations before it is mated to Ariane 5 on April 6th will encapsulation on April 7th/

Over the past near decade, JUICE prime contractor Airbus has designed, built, tested and shipped the JUICE spacecraft from Toulouse to French Guiana.
This departure marks the beginning for the teams at French Guiana but the end of years of hard work for the teams at Airbus.

During the next 10 weeks. teams at Europe's spaceport will continue integration work on JUICE to ready the spacecraft for an April 13th launch aboard the second last Ariane 5 launcher.

What Is JUICE?

Credit: Arnaud Muller // The Launch Pad

JUpiter ICy Moon Explorer (JUICE) is a spacecraft designed by ESA in partnership with Airbus Defence and Space. It will conduct detailed studies of Jupiter's atmosphere, magnetosphere, and its moons Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto over a period of at least 4 years.

JUICE will arrive at Jupiter in July 2031 which it will orbit for 4 years before heading for Jupiter's Moons.