Lockheed Martin shipped NASA's Juno spacecraft to Kennedy Space Center, Fllorida. on April 8. The vehicle will undergo four months of testing and processing in preparation for its launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 vehicle in early August. During the past year, the spacecraft was assembled and tested at lockheed Martin Space Systems Company facilities near Denver, Colo.
Juno is NASA's next mission to Jupiter and is the second of the agency's New Frontiers missions. Scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in July 2016, the spacecraft will spend a little more than a year orbiting over the poles of the gas giant while studying the planet's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.
Juno being loaded on c-17 globemaster
The 3,600-pound spacecraft was transported on an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport plane in an environmentally controlled container. The C-17 and its precious cargo touched down at 7:55 p.m. EDT at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. Juno was then transported to Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida,where it will go through final processing.
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