NASA’s Juno spacecraft must complete a carefully-planned sequence of events as it closes in on Jupiter for a make-or-break orbit insertion burn July 4.
The timeline posted below shows the schedule of major events in the weeks ahead of Juno’s arrival at Jupiter, plus the minute-by-minute sequence of steps planned for July 4.
Times below are listed in “Earth Receive Time” and Eastern Daylight Time (GMT-4) as confirmation of the Jupiter Orbit Insertion (JOI) events arrives on Earth. The one-way light travel time from Jupiter to Earth is approximately 48 minutes.
June 20................Juno's main engine cover opened June 27................Warm-up of Juno's helium pressurant tank June 28................Pressurization of Juno's propulsion system June 29 at 8:47 p.m....Juno's science instruments switched off June 30................Final command sequence uplinked to Juno July 4 at 9:13 p.m.....Status tones start July 4 at 9:16 p.m.....Start initial precession to JOI attitude July 4 at 9:37 p.m.....End initial precession to JOI attitude July 4 at 10:28 p.m....Start fast precession to JOI attitude July 4 at 10:41 p.m....Switch to toroidal low-gain antenna July 4 at 10:45 p.m....Begin nutation damping July 4 at 10:50 p.m....Start final transition to JOI attitude July 4 at 10:53 p.m....Juno in JOI attitude July 4 at 10:56 p.m....Spin up from 2 to 5 rpm July 4 at 11:01 p.m....Juno spinning at 5 rpm July 4 at 11:18 p.m....Start JOI burn July 4 at 11:53 p.m....End JOI burn July 4 at 11:55 p.m....Begin spinning down from 5 to 2 rpm July 5 at 12:00 a.m....Juno spinning at 2 rpm July 5 at 12:07 a.m....Start precession from JOI to solar-pointing attitude July 5 at 12:11 a.m....Switch to medium-gain antenna; end status tones July 5 at 12:16 a.m....End precession to solar-pointing attitude July 5 at 12:36 a.m....Ground begins receiving detailed telemetry from Juno July 5.................Replay of high data-rate telemetry July 6.................Begin switch-on of Juno science payloads July 13................Post-JOI trajectory course correction (if necessary) Aug. 27................First perijove (with science instruments activated) Oct. 19................Period reduction maneuver (from 53.5-day to 14-day orbit) Feb. 20, 2018..........Nominal end of mission
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