NASA’s mission Juno spacecraft to pass Earth on its journey to Jupiter

NEW YORK, NY – On Wednesday, October 9th, at 3:21pm EDT, NASA’s Mission Juno spacecraft will slingshot around Earth on its journey to Jupiter, helping it gain speed and eventually become the fastest man-made object in history.

World-renowned science educator Bill Nye will commemorate the event by hosting an eight-part YouTube series, “Why with Nye,” which launches Tuesday, October 8th on THNKR. The series will explain important aspects of the mission, including how the mission’s unique Earth-Sun-Earth-Jupiter flight path is helping the spacecraft ultimately gain speeds exceeding 165,000 mph (250,000 kph). Velocity gained from Juno’s recently completed first leg around the sun and back to Earth helped its speed surge from 78,000 mph (126,000 kph) to 93,000 mph (138,000 kph). RadicalMedia produced the series and designed its award-winning website (missionjuno.com)

“Juno is a remarkable mission that everyone on Earth can learn about. I’m proud to be part of these videos that describe Juno’s fantastic journey. It’s part of humankind’s quest to learn how our Solar System came to be and how you and I got here,” said Bill Nye.

Star gazers in South Africa will have the exclusive opportunity from Earth at 9:21pm local time to see Juno cross the sky with the naked eye. Astronauts on the International Space Station will make a first-ever attempt to film a deep space spacecraft approaching Earth and amateur ham radio operators on every continent have signed up to send a coordinated Morse code message that the spacecraft may detect.

“We are thrilled to have Bill Nye help connect the science community and the rest of the world to share in the promise of this historic mission to Jupiter,” said Southwest Research Institute’s Scott Bolton, Principal Investigator for Mission Juno. “Juno will help humans explore how Jupiter dictated the distribution of the elements and molecules to eventually create Earth and possibly life itself.”

Juno will arrive at Jupiter on July 4th, 2016, at 7:29 p.m. PDT (10:29 p.m. EDT). Once in orbit around Jupiter, the spacecraft will circle the planet 33 times, from pole to pole, and use its collection of nine science instruments to probe beneath the gas giant’s obscuring cloud cover. Juno’s science team will learn about Jupiter’s origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere, and look for a potential planetary core.

“Since our launch, THNKR has strived to bring smart entertainment to our audience from all over the globe,” said Justin Wilkes, President of Media & Entertainment for RadicalMedia’s THNKR channel. “Getting to boldly go where no one has gone before with Bill Nye is our next great programming adventure and we’re honored to go along for the ride”.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The Juno mission is part of the New Frontiers Program managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.