KOUROU: The European Space Agency’s JUICE space probe successfully took off on Friday for a mission to discover whether Jupiter’s icy moons are capable of hosting extra-terrestrial life in their vast, hidden oceans.

The launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, came after a previous attempt on Thursday was called off due to the risk of lightning.

Despite cloudy skies, the rocket lifted off as planned at 09:14am local time (1214 GMT) on Friday, as guests, including Belgium’s King Philippe, watched from the Guiana Space Centre.

A little under half an hour later, the un-crewed six-tonne spacecraft separated from the rocket at an altitude of 1,500 kilometres, which prompted an outbreak of applause at the centre. After a few tense minutes, ground control then received the first signal from the spacecraft. The sense of relief in the room was palpable.

“I was very stressed. That was a rollercoaster!” European Space

Agency (ESA) director-general Josef Aschbacher said.

“I’m extremely proud for Europe because JUICE is the biggest mission of the decade and the most complex ever sent to Jupiter,” he added.

The spacecraft then successfully unfurled its array of solar panels, which cover a record 85 square metres (915 square feet). It will need all the energy it can get when it nears Jupiter, where sunlight is 25 times weaker than on Earth.

“That’s it. We’re off and running,”

ESA’s JUICE project scientist Olivier Witasse said.

It will be another 17 days before the spacecraft deploys its antennae, and three months before a final performance review, said ESA’s Nicolas Altobelli.

However, the discovery of huge oceans of liquid water — the main ingredient for life as we know it — kilometres beneath their icy shells has made Ganymede and Europa prime candidates to potentially host life in our celestial backyard.

JUICE will turn its sights on Ganymede — the Solar System’s largest moon and the only one that has its own magnetic field, which protects it from radiation.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2023