The European Space Agency (ESA) has published a timelapse made by the JUICE spacecraft. It demonstrates a unique double gravitational maneuver performed in the vicinity of the Moon and the Earth.
JUICE met the Moon on the night of August 19-20. The spacecraft flew at a distance of only 700 km from its surface and then headed toward Earth. JUICE reached it in just over 24 hours. The distance of the minimum approach to our planet was 6,807 km.
This rendezvous was the first in a complex chain of gravitational maneuvers. They should accelerate JUICE to sufficient speed to allow it to enter orbit around Jupiter in the summer of 2031.
During the double maneuver, JUICE took photos using its navigation cameras, which are capable of capturing images with a resolution of 1024 x 1024 pixels. Their main task is to monitor the condition of the various components of the vehicle. Photos of the Moon and the Earth were a nice bonus.
Previously, ESA has already published some of the images taken by JUICE navigation cameras. Now the space agency has shared the full video with the public. It is made up of processed images and shows what the encounter with the Moon and Earth looked like from aboard the spacecraft. The music accompanying the video is called “11.2 km/s”. The composition was written by Gauthier Usher in 2015 and was chosen as the official theme music for the Estrack network of ground stations.
