Europe is about to launch one of its most ambitious missions ever

Enlarge / An Ariane 5 rocket is seen on the launch pad with the JUICE spacecraft on Wednesday, April 12. (credit: ESA)

As soon as Thursday morning, the European Space Agency will launch a large probe to Jupiter to study some of the giant planet’s most intriguing moons.

With a mass of 6 metric tons, the Jupiter Ice Moons Explorer—or JUICE—is the largest deep space mission launched by the European Space Agency and one of the largest by any nation to the outer planets. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch on an Ariane 5 rocket at 8:15 am ET (12:15 UTC) from Kourou, French Guiana. It will be broadcast live on ESA Web TV.

The European Space Agency performed high-profile science missions before, including the audacious landing of the Rosetta spacecraft on a comet in 2014 that garnered worldwide attention. Europe also built the Huygens lander that flew aboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft to Saturn and then landed on the moon Titan.