NASA counts down to Jupiter mission

[laconicsax]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/27/florida.jupiter.mission/index.html

(CNN) -- NASA scientists are slightly more than a week away from launching a Jupiter mission they say will unlock key secrets of how our solar system was formed.

After almost a decade of building and testing the Mission Juno satellite -- a $1.1 billion spacecraft -- NASA officials placed the craft atop an Atlas V rocket Wednesday. It is set to blast off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 5.

Juno will be launched into space atop an Atlas V 551 rocket, one of the world's most powerful, NASA said.

Mission Juno will offer unprecedented insight into the formation of our solar system by investigating what lies underneath Jupiter's atmosphere, astronomers said at Kennedy Space Center. Jupiter is known for its violent storms and gaseous atmosphere.

[jberryhill]

1. Just putting the final touches on the onboard computer....

[kentauros]

2. They just need to be wary of eclipses (and stray monoliths)

[AllenVanAllen]

3. And if we find "something"

hopefully we leave it be.

[sakabatou]

4. So this is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(spacecraft)">Galileo, take 2.

[laconicsax]

5. With luck, take 2 won't be plagued with problems.