JUICE: mission and targets

Project start

April 14, 2023

Declared end

not declared

The start the archive declares is the start of the project, not the launch, and an end it does not declare does not mean the mission is still running.

Targets you can open in 3D:

• Earth
• Jupiter
• Venus
• Moon
• Callisto
• Europa
• Ganymede

A declared target is what the archive files the mission’s data under, not a record of observation.

JUICE - JUpiter ICy moons Explorer - is the first large-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme. The spacecraft was launched on 14th April 2023 from Kourou, French Guyana. The cruise trajectory includes a double Lunar-Earth gravity assist (Aug 2024), a Venus Gravity assist (Aug 2025) and two Earth gravity assist (Sept 2026 and Jan 2029) before entering in orbit around Jupiter in July 2031. It will spend more than 3 years in orbit around Jupiter (tour), making detailed observations of the giant gaseous planet Jupiter and three of its largest moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. In late 2034 it will enter in orbit around Ganymede (Ganymede phase) where it will remain for an additional year. The mission will investigate conditions that may support habitable environments within the satellites, all of which are thought to contain subsurface liquid water oceans. Ganymede, the largest moon in the Solar System, is a prime target due to its internal structure and subsurface ocean, its unique intrinsic magnetic field, and its complex interactions with Jupiter’s magnetosphere, offering a natural laboratory for studying the emergence, evolution and potential habitability of icy worlds around giant planets. JUICE will also conduct a global investigation of the Jupiter system as the archetype for giant planet systems throughout our Universe: it will study Jupiter’s atmospheric circulation, composition, and flow of energy from the cloud tops to the thermosphere, and characterise the 3D structure of the magnetosphere and its coupling with the ionosphere and thermosphere. Interactions between the moons and the magnetosphere, as well as tidal and gravitational evolution within the Galilean system, will also be assessed. Additional targets include the innermost Galilean moon, Io and its plasma torus, the minor and irregular moons, and the ring systems. The payload includes four remote‑sensing instruments (UVS, SWI, JANUS and MAJIS), three geophysical packages (3GM, GALA, RIME), three particles‑and‑fields instruments (JMAG, PEP, RPWI), and one experiment using the spacecraft’s telecommunications system to connect with ground‑based radio telescopes (PRIDE), plus an onboard radiation monitor (RADEM). For more detailed information about the Juice mission, please consult Boutonnet, A., Langevin, Y. and Erd, C. Designing the JUICE Trajectory. Space Sci Rev 220, 67 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-024-01093-y and Witasse, O. et al, The JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) mission: post-launch status and mission overview,Space Sci Rev 220, 67 (in prep)

Quoted in English, as the archive publishes it, read on October 4, 2026.

• 3I/ATLAS (comet)
• SOLAR WIND (plasma stream)

Identifier in the archive, which is its citation: urn:esa:psa:context:investigation:mission.juice

NASA Planetary Data System, PDS Registry, investigation context products. Dates and targets read on September 29, 2026; how to cite the archive: https://pds.nasa.gov/datastandards/citing/

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