NASA's Jupiter-Bound Juno Changes its Orbit 30 Aug 2012
PASADENA, Calif. - Earlier today, navigators and mission
controllers for NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter watched their
computer screens as their spacecraft successfully performed its
first deep-space maneuver. This first firing of Juno's main
engine is one of two planned to refine the spacecraft's
trajectory, setting the stage for a gravity assist from a flyby
of Earth on Oct 9, 2013. Juno will arrive at Jupiter on July 4,
2016. The deep-space maneuver began at 6:57 p.m. EDT (3:57 p.m.
PDT) today, when the Leros-1b main engine was fired for 29
minutes 39 seconds. Based on telemetry, the Juno project team
believes the burn was accurate, changing the spacecraft's
velocity by about 770 mph (344 meters a second) while consuming
about 829 pounds (376 kilograms) of fuel. "This first and
successful main engine burn is the payoff for a lot of hard work
and planning by the operations team," said Juno Project Manager
Rick Nybakken of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laborator