‘It’s going to be hair-raising’: high-risk slingshot move will send robot craft to Jupiter

European space scientists will begin a delicate navigation that will take a probe on scenic route to outer solar system

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European space scientists will this week attempt one of the most daring operations ever undertaken in interplanetary flight. On Wednesday, they will direct their Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) to make a flyby of Earth and its moon and carry out the first double gravity-assist manoeuvre in space.

The delicate, high-risk exercise is vital to the success of the European Space Agency (Esa) mission and is aimed at taking the 1.6bn (1.4bn) robot craft to its target, Jupiter, by July 2031. There it will begin exploration of two of the giant planet's moons, Europa and Ganymede, in a bid to find signs of life that may lurk in their ice-covered oceans.