NASA's Juno successfully begins orbit of Jupiter
NASA's unmanned Juno spacecraft began orbiting Jupiter, a key triumph for a US$ 1.1 billion mission that aims to uncover the origins of the biggest planet in the solar system.
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"Welcome to Jupiter," said a commentator at mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
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The room erupted in cheers as the solar observatory successfully entered its aimed-for orbit around Jupiter at 11:53 pm (0353 GMT Tuesday).
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The spacecraft has traveled 1.7 billion miles (2.7 billion kilometers) since it launched five years ago from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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"We are in it," hollered Scott Bolton, NASA's principal investigator.
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"You are the best team ever," he told his colleagues at mission control.
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"You just did the hardest thing NASA has ever done."