4 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE MISSION
1 What it cost: The mission -- which came in on cost and on time -- costs $1.1-billion, but that's relatively inexpensive. The probe launched in 1997 to Saturn cost $3.4 billion.
2 When will it reach Jupiter? If all goes well, Juno will cross the 1.7 billion-mile voyage and go into orbit around Jupiter's poles -- a first -- on July 4, 2016. By the fall of 2017, Juno is expected to have completed 34 elliptical, polar orbits around Jupiter.
3 How close will it get? The orbit will bring Juno within 3,100 miles of the cloudtops and right over the most powerful auroras in the solar system. It will circle the planet 33 times, each orbit lasting 11 days for a grand total of one year.
4 What's the goal? Scientists hope that by better understanding the largest planet in the solar system, they will better understand the building blocks of the solar system and the formation of Earth.
