NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Heads Back Toward Jupiter After Completing Half Of Its First ‘Capture Orbit’

NASA’s Juno has turned a corner and is now falling back toward Jupiter. The spacecraft, which successfully entered into orbit around the gas giant on July 4, reached the farthest point of 5 million miles in its orbit — “apojove” — at 3:41 p.m. EDT.

Now, the spacecraft is zooming back toward Jupiter with its “scientific eyes wide open,” and will, on Aug. 27, finish its first lap of Jupiter. On that day, it will fly by Jupiter at a distance of just 2,600 miles above its dense cloud tops.