04.11.13

Juno Position & Status

View of Juno’s position on April 12 from  NASA's Eyes on the Solar System.

As of April 12, Juno was approximately 59 million miles (95 million kilometers) from Earth. The one-way radio signal travel time between Earth and Juno is currently about 5.3 minutes. Juno is currently traveling at a velocity of about 14.2 miles (22.8 kilometers) per second relative to the sun. Velocity relative to Earth is about 8.9 miles (14.4 kilometers) per second.

The Juno spacecraft is in excellent health and is operating nominally. Four instruments -- JEDI, MWR, Waves, and MAG -- are turned on.

Most recent spacecraft significant events

Available power to Juno’s solar arrays continues to increase as the spacecraft heads closer to the sun on approach to its Earth flyby gravity assist maneuver on Oct. 9. Juno is currently nearing the orbit of Mars (1.5 AU from the sun) after having reached a maximum distance from the sun of 210 million miles (338 million kilometers, or 2.3 AU) in Sept. 2012. An AU, or astronomical unit, is a convenient measure of distance between places in the solar system. It is equal to the distance from the Sun to Earth (93 million miles or 150 million kilometers).

On April 10, as planned, mission controllers reduced the amount of power flowing into the spacecraft from its solar arrays from 2200 watts to 500 watts. Once it arrives at Jupiter, Juno will operate on about 450 watts.

See Juno’s current position, speed and more via NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System 3D interactive. Launch the Juno module or view Juno in the standard Eyes on the Solar System interface.