Juice placed on an air cushion platform
After being fuelled for launch in the hazardous processing facility, ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) was transferred to the final assembly building. To enable the transfer, Juice was first carefully attached to the conical adaptor mounted on the air cushion platform that we see in this image.
The operators wore bright yellow suits for this task; these are used whenever hazardous operations are carried out, for example when a spacecraft is moved.
In the final assembly building Juice was attached to the Ariane 5 rocket that will carry it into space.
Juice is being prepared to launch from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 13 April 2023. After an eight-year journey to Jupiter, the mission will make detailed observations of the gas giant and its three large ocean-bearing moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa – with a suite of instruments. The mission 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.
