Europe's Ariane 5 successfully launches JUICE mission to explore Jupiter's icy moons.

An Ariane 5 rocket successfully launched the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft on an eight-year journey to Jupiter. The Airbus-built spacecraft will perform several gravity-assist flybys to reach Jupiter and three of its largest moons. JUICE will enter orbit around Jupiter in July 2031, performing 35 flybys of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto to characterize their surfaces and subterranean oceans, including determining if they are habitable. The launch was the penultimate flight of the Ariane 5 rocket, which is being replaced by the Ariane 6.