The JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) spacecraft returned to Earth on Monday (September 28), but only for a brief aerial visit. The European Space Agency (ESA) probe stopped only to receive gravitational assistance to continue its journey to Jupiter and its moons. JUICE launched in April 2023, and this is the third time during its three and a half year mission that it has received gravity assistance. This included performing the first flyby of the Moon to Earth in August 2024, and obtaining a speed increase and alteration of the trajectory of the second planet from the Sun, Venus, a year later, in August 2025. During the flyby, JUICE came within 5,370 miles (8,640 kilometers) of Earth, with careful adjustments made to help the probe avoid colliding with satellites around our planet. “All flybys are risky and require very careful and ongoing planning. But the upcoming Earth flyby is much simpler from an operational perspective than the 2024 Moon-Earth flyby, where a Moon flyby prepared Juice for an Earth flyby the next day,” Juice Project scientist Claire Vallat said in a statement. “This is great news for science, because it means we will be able to turn Juice in different directions to point its scientific instruments at different parts of the Earth and Moon.” The purpose of this latest JUICE/Earth flyby is to deflect the spacecraft’s trajectory by about 20 degrees while increasing its speed to about 7,830 miles per hour (3.5 kilometers per second). You might like JUICE was over the Indian Ocean when it made its closest approach to Earth around 7:45 a.m. EDT (1145 GMT). JUICE’s trajectory around Earth during its September 28 flyby. (Image credit: ESA) JUICE performs flybys like this because, without them, an immense amount of fuel would be needed to reach the speeds needed to reach Jupiter, not to mention the fuel that would be needed to prevent JUICE from passing through the Jovian system. Instead, the gravity of Earth, Venus and the Moon has been used to adjust JUICE’s speed and trajectory. As a result, JUICE will have enough fuel left to enter Jupiter’s orbit in 2031 and then jump into an orbit around the Jovian moon Ganymede three years later in 2034. Meanwhile, JUICE will make a third and final flyby of Earth in January 2029.
