September 17, 2012 PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Juno spacecraft
successfully executed a second Deep Space Maneuver, called DSM-2
last Friday, Sept. 14. The 30 minute firing of its main engine
refined the Jupiter-bound 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 maneuver began
at 3:30 p.m. PDT (6:30 p.m. EDT), when the Leros-1b main engine
began to fire. The burn ended at 4 p.m. PDT (7 p.m. EDT). Based
on telemetry, the Juno project team believes the burn was
accurate, changing the spacecraft's velocity by about 867 mph
(388 meters a second) while consuming about 829 pounds (376
kilograms) of fuel. The burn occurred when Juno was more than
298 million miles (480 million kilometers) from Earth. Juno
executed its first deep space maneuver (DSM-1), one of
comparable duration and velocity change, on Aug. 30. Together,
both maneuvers placed Juno on course for its Earth flyby, which
will occur as the spacecraft is