NASA Makes History With Jupiter Orbit Mission
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- NASA is celebrating its history-making mission into Jupiter's orbit.
After traveling close to two billion miles over five years, the space agency's solar-powered spacecraft, Juno, successfully began orbiting the largest planet in our solar system on Independence Day.
NASA scientists cheered and gave each other high-fives as they declared Mission Juno - accomplished.
"We prepared a contingency communications procedure and guess what (rips paper…applause), we don't need that anymore," said Juno Project Manager Rick Nybakken.
The spinning, solar-powered spacecraft successfully entered Jupiter's orbit shortly before midnight after completing a 35-minute engine burn.
The high stakes maneuver allowed Juno, roughly the size of a basketball court, to slow itself down significantly and hit a target just a few miles wide.
"A mission of this complexity, to accomplish tonight, is just truly amazing," said NASA's Acting Associate Administrator Geoffrey Yoder.
"To actually have it to know we can actually go to bed tonight without worry about what's going to happen tomorrow is pretty awesome," said Juno Program Executive Diane Brown.
NASA designed the spacecraft to withstand the intense radiation belts and a ring of debris surrounding the planet.
As Juno's journey unfolded, it already began capturing images of Jupiter and its moons.
Over the next 20 months, scientists hope to learn more about the planet's composition and uncover new clues about how our solar system began.
Juno has several science instruments on board, along with a color camera and three Lego figurines. One is a likeness of Galileo, the other two represent the Roman god Jupiter and his wife Juno.
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