Close up of Jupiter's swirling clouds.

Jupiter Exploration

While Jupiter has been known since ancient times, the first detailed observations of this planet were made by Galileo Galilei in 1610 with a small telescope. More recently, this planet has been visited by passing spacecraft, orbiters and probes.

Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2 were the first to fly by Jupiter in the 1970s, and since then we’ve sent Galileo to orbit the gas giant and drop a probe into its atmosphere. Cassini took detailed photos of Jupiter on its way to neighboring Saturn, as did New Horizons on its quest for Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which arrived in the Jovian system in July 2016, is currently studying the giant planet from orbit.

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In orbit

Juno

Past missions

8

missions en route

Lucy & ESA's JUICE

Future Missions

Europa Clipper

Missions to Jupiter

An artist's concept of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft.

Pioneer 10

Pioneer 10 was designed as a 21-month mission to Jupiter, yet lasted more than 30 years.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, shown in this illustration

Voyager 1

Voyager 1 surprised scientists by spotting volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io. 

An illustration of the trajectories of Voyager 1 and 2.

Voyager 2

Voyager 2 flew by Jupiter and returned spectacular photos and unprecedented data. 

Galileo

Galileo changed the way we look at our solar system.

An orange and yellow striped planet with a gold and silver spacecraft in front of it.

New Horizons

New Horizons captured impressive pictures of Jupiter's moons Io, Europa, and Ganymede.

This artist concept depicts the Juno spacecraft which will launch from Earth in 2011 and will arrive at Jupiter in 2016 to study the giant planet from an elliptical, polar orbit.

Juno

Juno is probing beneath Jupiter's dense clouds to answer questions about its origin and evolution

Illustration of spacecraft at Jupiter with four moons visible.

Juice

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer from ESA (European Space Agency), is en route to study Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

An illustration shows a spacecraft in silhouette above an icy moon's surface with reddish fractures. Beyond the moon's horizon, the planet Jupiter sits in the distance.

Europa Clipper

A NASA mission to visit Europa in 2030 to see if the moon's sub-surface ocean has conditions suitable to support life.

Launch Date
Spacecraft
Nation
Type
Outcome
Mar 3, 1973
USA
Flyby
Success - First
Apr 5, 1973
USA
Flyby
Success
Sep 5, 1977
USA
Flyby
Success
Aug 20, 1977
USA
Flyby
Success
Oct 18, 1989
USA
Orbiter
Success
Oct. 6, 1990
International
Flyby
Success
Oct 15, 1997
USA
Flyby
Success
Jan 19, 2006
USA
Flyby
Success
Aug. 5, 2011
USA
Orbiter
Success
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