Launching today: ESA's Juice spacecraft to probe Jupiter's moons for life signs

We speak to professor deeply involved in multi-year, billion-plus-euro mission

Updated On December 4, 1973, NASA's Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to observe Jupiter up close, zipping by at a distance of 82,000 miles above its swirling clouds. Its twin probe, Pioneer 11, followed a year later, and got three times closer to the gas giant. Now the European Space Agency is about to try for an even closer look at the biggest planet in our locale....