Bad weather forces postponement of Jupiter space mission

The European Space Agency decided to postpone the launch of its Juice mission to Jupiter to Friday because of unfavourable weather conditions at the South American launchsite in Kourou, French Guiana.

The Juice probe in Toulouse, a few days before its departure for Kourou. © Charly Triballeau/AFP

The launch of the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer – or Juice – was called off Thursday, just minutes before the Ariane 5 rocket was to take off from the European space port in Kourou, French Guiana.

• European space mission seeks out new life on Jupiter's icy moons

Launch directors said weather, notably a risk of lightening, would have put the mission at risk.

The mission was rescheduled for Friday, 9:14 am local (12:14 pm GMT).

The unmanned spacecraft will be launched towards the east, and will head into the atmosphere before making contact with receivers near Australia once it is clear of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Juice will take eight years to reach Jupiter, where it will survey the planet and inspect the frozen oceans on three of its moons for evidence of extraterrestrial life.

The launch will mark the penultimate use ot the Ariane 5 rocket before it is replaced by the Ariane 6, whose deployment has been repeatedly delayed.

• France follows SpaceX by developing its own reusable rocket launchers

The mission will mark the first time Europe has sent a spacecraft into the outer Solar System, beyond Mars.

The launch of the 1.6 billion-euro mission comes during a crisis for European space efforts, after Russia stopped supplying Soyuz rockets in response to sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

Combined with delays to the next generation Ariane 6 rockets and the failure of Vega-C's first commercial flight last year, Europe is struggling to launch space missions.