Nasa’s solar-powered Juno spacecraft executed its first Jupiter ‘flyby’, passing 4,200 km above the gas giant’s swirling clouds, the closest ever by a man-made probe. Juno’s entire suite of instruments were activated for the first time on August 27 after the flyby, NASA said. This flyby was the closest Juno will get to Jupiter during its mission. “Early post-flyby telemetry indicates that everything worked as planned and Juno is firing on all cylinders,” said Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US. The Juno spacecraft was launched on August 5, 2011, from Florida, and arrived at Jupiter on July 4 this year.

Source: Hindustan Times August 28, 2016 18:00 UTC