The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer spacecraft, which launched last week, has sent back its first images from space — and they are some stunning views of the Earth. The JUICE mission is on its way to explore three of Jupiter’s largest moons — Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa — but it will be traveling for eight years before it arrives at the Jupiter system in 2031.
The monitoring cameras are needed to oversee the complex process of the JUICE spacecraft unfurling its various antennae and booms. The spacecraft had to be folded up to fit inside the nose cone of the Ariane 5 rocket that launched it, but once it was deployed into space, it could begin unfurling.
The other monitoring camera, Juice monitoring camera 1, or JMC1, is placed at the front of the spacecraft to oversee the deployment of the solar panels and other antennae.