A solar-powered Nasa robotic craft has taken off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to begin its five-year journey to Jupiter.
The launch of the Juno explorer, which took place at 5.25pm Irish time (12.25 local time, Florida), on top of an unmanned rocket was delayed by about an hour due to technical issues.
United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture that builds and flies Atlas and Delta rockets for Nasa, the military and commercial customers, fixed a technical problem with ground support equipment that supplies a helium purge to the rocket.
It will take Juno five years to reach Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. The spacecraft will be powered by three huge solar panels. It will be the farthest any solar-powered craft has ever travelled. Previous Jupiter probes have relied on nuclear energy.
Jupiter is believed to be the oldest planet in the solar system. Astronomers hope to figure out the recipe for making planets, by uncovering the ingredients of this gas giant. Juno will spend at least one year circling Jupiter's poles.
After its five-year, 400-million-mile voyage, the spacecraft will orbit the planet, investigate its origin and evolution with eight instruments to examine its internal structure and gravity field, measure water and ammonia in its atmosphere, map its powerful magnetic field and observe its intense auroras.
Attached to Juno are three little Lego figures. They represent the Italian physicist Galileo, who discovered Jupiter's biggest moons; the Roman god Jupiter; and his wife Juno, for whom the spacecraft is named.
Agencies