NASA‘s Juno mission completed its 50th close flyby of Jupiter on Saturday.
What happened: Juno completed its 50th orbit around Jupiter on April 8 since July 2016, when NASA’s solar-powered spacecraft arrived at Jupiter, NASA said in a statement Monday.
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In celebration of its 50th orbit, NASA released 50 images that helped Juno capture the largest planet in the solar system.
However, it’s only “a small sample of the data Juno has returned so far,” NASA added. The spacecraft has enabled views of Earth, Jupiter and Jupiter’s large moons Ganymede, Europa and Io.
Juno is NASA’s most distant planetary orbiter to have launched into space August 2011 on board an Atlas V rocket. It was en route for five years before entering orbit around Jupiter in 2016, and is expected to continue its probes into Jupiter until September 2025, or the end of its lifetime.
“Some of Juno’s most exciting explorations are yet to come!” NASA tweeted. The spacecraft will now enter Jupiter’s ring system and fly over the planet’s night side.
In response to Juno’s performance, SpaceX rival United Launch Alliance tweeted, “Honored to have taken you to Jupiter #AtlasV!”
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