NASA’s Juno spacecraft has successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit

Yeah, boy! Juno has successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit. The spacecraft sent a message a mere 540 million miles across the solar system to let NASA, and you know, the rest of us know.

CNN:

Jet Propulsion Lab, California (CNN)NASA says it has received a signal from 540 million miles across the solar system, confirming its Juno spacecraft has successfully started orbiting Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.

“Welcome to Jupiter!” flashed on screens at mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California.

“This is phenomenal,” said Geoff Yoder, acting administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

The probe had to conduct a tricky maneuver to slow down enough to allow it to be pulled into orbit: It fired its main engine for 35 minutes, effectively hitting the brakes to slow the spacecraft by about 1,212 miles per hour (542 meters per second).

“NASA did it again,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator.

“We’re there, we’re in orbit. We conquered Jupiter.”
“Through tones Juno sang to us and it was a song of perfection,” said Rick Nybakken, Juno Project Manager, referring to the audio signal the probe sent to indicate it was in orbit.