About ESA
The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Highlights
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Space in Member States
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Germany
Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Spain
Estonia
Finland
France
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Norway
The Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Czechia
Romania
United Kingdom
Slovenia
Sweden
Switzerland
Science & Exploration
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicAstronauts
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Enabling & Support
Making space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Missions to Jupiter
Overview of ESA and NASA missions that have visited or will visit Jupiter.
On the left of the timeline are spacecraft designed to orbit the gas giant, with the stated date range from arrival at Jupiter to end of mission. On the right of the timeline are spacecraft that have flown by Jupiter on their way to the more distant reaches of the Solar System; the stated dates show the year that the spacecraft flew past the gas giant.
ESA’s upcoming Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission will launch in April 2023 to make detailed observations of the giant gas planet and its three large ocean-bearing moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa – with a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments. Juice will characterise 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.
The first person to view Jupiter and its largest moons through a telescope was Galileo Galilei in 1609. Over 400 years later and humanity’s ever-long desire to look up and explore worlds beyond our own lives on; Juice will carry a commemorative plaque, as a tribute to the Italian astronomer.
