ESA Juice Spacecraft Completes Successful Earth Gravity Assist on Way to Jupiter

On September 28, 2026, the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, known as Juice, completed a close gravity-assist flyby of Earth, passing just 8,640 kilometers above the Indian Ocean. The manoeuvre used our planet’s gravity to reshape the spacecraft’s path toward Jupiter while consuming very little fuel, increasing its speed by 3.5 km/s and deflecting its trajectory by an angle of 20°.

As it flew past, Juice captured a series of images with its onboard monitoring cameras, including views showing the continent of Africa, the island of Madagascar, and the Moon as a tiny grey dot.

Juice Saves Propellant During Precise Planetary Flyby

Flight controllers guided the spacecraft for the close pass, which reached its closest point at 13:45 CEST (11:45 UTC) on September 28. According to Angela Dietz, Juice’s Spacecraft Operations Manager, The flyby required ultra-precise navigation in real time. Thanks to our very careful planning, we used only a small amount of the propellant reserved for this flyby, adding that This gives us more to use at Jupiter to carry out observations of the planet’s icy moons.

The encounter also provided a chance to test Juice’s ten scientific instruments using a real planetary target. Instrument activities during the flyby were prioritized based on their relevance for preparing for work at Jupiter, factoring in operational constraints such as operating on battery power while in Earth’s shadow.

Juice Heads for 2029 Earth Flyby and Jupiter

This encounter is part of a series of pathfinding steps for the spacecraft.

Following the September 28 flyby, the spacecraft was tracked zooming away, with camera views continuing into September 29. The successful redirection puts Juice on course for another Earth flyby scheduled for January 2029. After that upcoming encounter, the ESA craft will finally begin its voyage to Jupiter proper, where it is expected to arrive in 2031 to study the giant planet and conduct 35 flybys of its large moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.