NASA’s Juno spacecraft resumed full flight operations on Friday, two days after during its Earth flyby last Wednesday.
The $1.1 billion Jupiter mission launched in 2011 on an Atlas V rocket, built by Centennial-based United Launch Alliance. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Jefferson County designed, built and tested the spacecraft, which then needed to circle back to Earth in order to get the slingshot effect, also known as a gravity assist,to make it to the distant planet.
During the anticipated 22 minutes of communication blackout, the spacecraft entered safe mode, which is triggered whenever it detects some abnormal.
Scientists are analyzing the data it received during the flyby as most of the images were obtained prior to the black out period. The spacecraft is expected to arrive at Jupiter’s orbit in July 2016.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Juno mission and Scott Bolton of San Antonio-based Southwest Research Institute is the principal investigator.
Kristen Leigh Painter: 303-954-1638, kpainter@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kristenpainter
