Solar System Simulator · Spacecraft · live
Where is JUICE right now?
Europe's Jupiter mission, arriving July 2031. Launched 14 April 2023 by ESA.
Worked out for Fri, Oct 23, 2026 (UTC) from JPL Horizons.
What JUICE is doing
JUICE, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, is ESA's mission to Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. Its route is a chain of flybys: the Earth and Moon together in August 2024, Venus in August 2025, Earth again in September 2026 and January 2029.
What happens next
It reaches Jupiter in July 2031, tours the icy moons for three years, and in late 2034 becomes the first spacecraft to orbit a moon other than our own, Ganymede.
Timeline
| When | Event |
|---|---|
| 14 Apr 2023 | Launch |
| 19 Aug 2024 | Moon and Earth flyby |
| 31 Aug 2025 | Venus flyby |
| 29 Sep 2026 | Earth flyby |
| Jan 2029 | Earth flyby |
| Jul 2031 | Arrives at Jupiter |
| Dec 2034 | Orbits Ganymede |
What the simulator does
- Open the Now tab: the clock jumps to this minute and pauses, and every probe is drawn where JPL Horizons puts it, among the planets where they really are.
- Pick JUICE and the view centres on it; the compressed distance scale keeps even the Voyagers in the frame.
- The positions come from JPL's tables, refreshed every day; the planets come from the simulator's own physics on today's date.
Questions people ask
Where is JUICE right now?
JUICE is 0.88 AU from the Sun, 131.6 million km (81.7 million mi), and 0.16 AU from Earth. Light from it takes 81 seconds to reach us.
How far is JUICE from Earth?
0.16 AU, 24.3 million km (15.1 million mi) from Earth today, so a radio signal takes 81 seconds each way.
When does JUICE reach Jupiter?
July 2031; it enters orbit around Ganymede in late 2034.
How is its position worked out?
From JPL Horizons, NASA's ephemeris service, which tracks every spacecraft from its radio signals. This site keeps a table of positions a few days apart and reads today's from it; the page is rendered for the day it is served.
Keep going
The distances come from JPL Horizons, refreshed daily; the map and the simulator place the planets with the site's own physics.