On August 19 and 20, 2024, Juice successfully completed the world’s first flyby between the Moon and Earth. Flight controllers guided the spacecraft first past the Moon and then past the Earth. The gravity of the two changed Juice’s speed and direction, sending it on a shortcut over Venus to Jupiter.

The closest approach to the Moon occurred on August 19 at 23:15 CEST, followed by Juice’s closest approach to Earth just over 24 hours later on August 20 at 23:56 CEST. In the hours before and after both approaches, Juice’s two surveillance cameras took photos that give us a unique “Juice perspective” on our home planet.

Juice’s two surveillance cameras provide 1024 x 1024 pixel snapshots that can be processed in color. Their main purpose is to monitor the spacecraft’s various booms and antennas, especially during the difficult post-launch period. The photos they took during the flyby of the Moon and Earth are a bonus.

The piece of music that accompanies the images is called 11.2 km/s. It was composed by Gautier Acher in 2015 and was chosen as the official theme music for ESA’s Estrack ground station network on the occasion of its 40th anniversary (more information). The music is available under a CC BY-NC-SA license.

During the world’s first flyby between the Moon and Earth, the fuel was diverted to Venus

Juice’s Moon-Earth Flyby: Everything You Need to Know

Processing notes: The Juice surveillance cameras deliver images with 1024 x 1024 pixels. Using upscaling software, the images were converted to images with 2160 x 2160 pixels, which corresponds to the resolution of 3480 x 2160 pixels of the 4K film format.

Access the associated broadcast-quality footage.