First-ever Jupiter mission for ESA, JUICE set to go live today; Check time, how to watch online

In just a few hours from now, the first-ever Jupiter mission for Europe will take off. The mission, which is called the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), is being led by the European Space Agency (ESA). The spacecraft will study three of Jupiter's Galilean moons — Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa — in search of water and signs of life on them. The spacecraft will take about seven and a half years to reach the gas giant and will begin its exploration in 2031. If you want to know the time of the JUICE mission launch and how to watch it live online, check the details below.

The ESA JUICE mission is set to launch on April 13 at 1215 GMT (8:15 AM EDT, 5:45 PM IST). The liftoff will take place from pad ELA-3 in Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Interestingly, the rocket which will deploy the spacecraft into space, Ariane 5, also launched the NASA James Webb Space Telescope.

ESA JUICE mission to take off in a few hours

As per ESA, the primary objective of the JUICE missions is to make detailed observations of Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons with a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in-situ instruments. The mission will characterize these moons as both planetary objects and possible habitats, explore Jupiter’s complex environment in-depth, and study the wider Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giants across the Universe. It will conduct 35 Jovian moon flybys.

The spacecraft will carry as many as 10 instruments to collect data from the gas giant. The notable among them include Jovis, Amorum ac Natorum Undique Scrutator (JANUS), a camera system that has 13 panchromatic, broad, and narrow-band filters in the 0.36-micrometer to 1.1-micrometer range, and provides stereo imaging capabilities as well as Moons and Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer (MAJIS), which is a visible and infrared imaging spectrograph operating from 400 nm to 5.70-micrometer, with a spectral resolution of 3–7 nm, that will observe tropospheric cloud features and minor gas constituents on Jupiter and investigate the composition of ices and minerals on the surfaces of the icy moons.

How to watch the JUICE mission launch online

If you are interested in watching the groundbreaking mission launch, ESA will be hosting a live broadcast at 1145 GMT (7:45 AM EDT, 5:15 PM IST). You can watch the webcast by visiting the official website of ESA, or by clicking this link. A French version of the broadcast has also been made by the space agency which can be accessed here.

Before making its way to Jupiter, the spacecraft will make flybys of Venus, the Earth, and the Moon in order to increase its speed and adjust its trajectory.