NASA promising July 4 big bang and lots of science when Juno probe reaches Jupiter

MILES O’BRIEN:

It's that dim that they had to build these giant arrays. Those have been spread and they're operating just fine.

And it's traveling now, as it speeds up toward Jupiter, being captured by the gravity, at more than 153,000 miles an hour, making it one of the fastest manmade objects ever. So, the trick will be reducing that speed enough so that it doesn't just whiz by the planet, like some of those other probes we talked about.

So, it will turn its rocket in the opposite direction, sort of the reverse direction, fire it for about 35 minutes. And that should slow it down just enough for Jupiter to pull it into its grasp. And that will be a nail-biting moment for the folks at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, as they wait to hear, subsequent to all that happening — this is all on autopilot.

There's nothing they can do to make this happen or not happen. It will either happen or it won't. It's kind of the die is cast. They will get, like, a three-second beep, and that will be it. And that will be the best beep these guys have ever heard, hopefully.

And then the mission begins. The scientific mission ultimately will begin toward the fall with 14-day orbits lasting for about 16 months. And then, when they're done with Juno, Juno will dive right into Jupiter and have a fiery conclusion.

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