The Juice spacecraft started its eight year venture to the moons of the largest planet in our solar system,

Carried by an Ariane 5 rocket, the launch, run by the European Space Agency, Juice is set to make detailed observations of Jupiter and its three of its moons. Ganyede, Callisto, and Europa each have large oceans, and the mission plans on exploring and characterising the many potential habitats the gas giant and it’s moons hold.

The launch was originally scheduled to occur on Thursday, but was delayed due to lightning. Costing around £1.4bn, launch and spacecraft design took years of research and development in order to sustain a venture into such deep space.

Juice will be the first space craft to orbit a moon that is not our own, and has several new technological develops to help it enter the extreme environment of deep space, as well as Jupiter itself.

These include new solar panels to collect energy when facing low power and a lack of light, a powerful antennae to send data back to earth, shields to protect sensitive elements from high radiation, and an innovative isolation blanket to fight off harsh temperatures.

The mission will also perform the first ever lunar-Earth gravity assist to save propellant, and change orbit from another plant to one of its moons, shifting from Jupiter to Ganymede.

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Juice will separate from Ariane 5 28 minutes after launch, and then ESA will start tracking Juice using ground station.

Between 99 minutes and 17 days after the lunch, Juice’s solar arrays, antennas, probes, and magnetometer boom will be deployed, and Juice will be set to continue its journey of eight years to reach Jupiter.