The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission — ‘Juice’ — is ready to embark on its journey to the solar system’s largest planet.
Juice is scheduled to launch today, April 14, at 14:14 CEST (13:15 BST) from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
The launch was supposed to take place yesterday but was postponed due to poor weather conditions.
Juice will make the 8-year, 6.6 billion km trip to study three of Jupiter’s moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. Each of these worlds has an ocean of water hidden underneath an icy shell — an important target for astronomers searching for life beyond Earth.
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ESA will stream the launch live on its website and on its YouTube channel which you can view below. French viewers can access ESA’s Web TV Two.