ESA’s Juice spacecraft completed its third gravity assist on 28 September 2026, using an Earth flyby to bend its route by 20° and increase its velocity by 3.5 km/s, according to the European Space Agency. The pass took Juice toward its final planned Earth flyby in January 2029, ahead of its expected arrival at Jupiter in 2031.
What happened during Juice’s Earth flyby?
Juice made its closest approach at 13:45 CEST (11:45 UTC) on 28 September 2026, passing about 8640 km above the Indian Ocean. ESA reported that Earth’s gravity deflected the spacecraft’s trajectory by 20° compared with its pre-flyby path and increased its velocity by 3.5 km/s. These are mission-operation figures reported by ESA, not independent scientific-study measurements. ESA’s post-flyby account describes the outcome.
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The closest approach was the culmination of a carefully tracked operation. ESA says tracking began on 17 August and continued through 10 October 2026. Before the encounter, controllers used one small trajectory correction from six opportunities reserved for the approach. Juice did not enter orbit around Earth: it passed by on its long cruise to Jupiter.
Why does Juice need a gravity assist?
A gravity assist uses a planet’s gravity to alter a spacecraft’s direction and speed. By selecting the approach and departure path, mission planners can redirect a spacecraft while conserving propellant compared with trying to achieve the same route through onboard propulsion alone. The Earth encounter reshaped Juice’s Jupiter-bound trajectory; it was not a stop or orbital capture.
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Angela Dietz, Juice Spacecraft Operations Manager, said the flyby required “ultra-precise navigation in real time” and that the team used only a small amount of the propellant reserved for it. ESA did not give a specific quantity. The agency said conserving propellant leaves more available for operations and observations at Jupiter.
How this flyby fits into Juice’s mission
Juice launched in April 2023 and is on an eight-year cruise to Jupiter. ESA counts the September 2026 Earth pass as the mission’s third gravity assist, although it was the second standalone Earth flyby: the first assist was a combined Moon-Earth encounter in August 2024.
| Encounter | Role and outcome | Next destination |
|---|---|---|
| Moon, then Earth (August 2024) | A combined lunar-Earth gravity-assist maneuver; ESA described it as a world first. | Venus |
| Venus (August 2025) | Gravity assist on the cruise route; the cited post-event account does not state a numerical change in speed or trajectory. | Earth |
| Earth (28 September 2026) | ESA reported a 20° trajectory deflection and a 3.5 km/s velocity increase. | Final planned Earth flyby in January 2029 |
The 2024 maneuver first passed the Moon and then Earth, sending Juice toward Venus; ESA’s historical account explains that sequence and its significance. Read ESA’s account of the lunar-Earth flyby. The latest Earth pass points Juice toward another Earth encounter, planned for January 2029, before its expected arrival at Jupiter in 2031. ESA’s pre-flyby explanation outlines the planned assist sequence and why the route uses planetary gravity.
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What science did Juice do near Earth?
Navigation was the primary purpose, but the encounter also gave teams a chance to test and calibrate science instruments with Earth and the Moon as familiar targets. Claire Vallat, Juice Project Scientist, said the journey to Jupiter offers only a few opportunities to validate instruments under well-understood environmental conditions.
ESA described this as the third opportunity to test Juice’s instruments on a real surface in space: the first was the 2024 lunar-Earth encounter, and the second came during observations of comet 3I/ATLAS in 2025. During the 2026 pass, Juice also spent several days in Earth’s magnetotail, measuring magnetic fields and charged particles far from Earth. ESA noted complementary observations by the European-Chinese Smile mission near Earth.
At the time of ESA’s 28 September report, some images and spectra still needed to reach Earth and be evaluated, including high-resolution images of Earth and the Moon from the JANUS science camera. The report therefore establishes that observations were made, but does not establish that all those data had been received, analyzed, or released.
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What happens next at Jupiter?
After its final planned Earth flyby in January 2029, Juice is expected to reach Jupiter in 2031. There it will study the planet and its large ocean-bearing moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. ESA’s mission plan includes 35 flybys of those moons before Juice changes orbit to Ganymede.
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