Europe's JUICE mission to launch for Jupiter's icy moons

The European Space Agency’s JUICE spacecraft will blast off Thursday on an eight-year journey through the Solar System to discover whether its moons can host life

The European Space Agency's JUICE spacecraft is to blast off Thursday on an eight-year journey through the Solar System to discover whether Jupiter's icy moons are capable of hosting extraterrestrial life in their vast, hidden oceans.

The JUpiter ICy Moons Explorer (JUICE) has received the green light for its scheduled launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 1215 GMT.

"The weather conditions are good," Guiana Space Centre director Marie-Anne Clair said on Wednesday in the control room, where Belgium's King Philippe was among those in attendance.

The six-tonne spacecraft, which is roughly four square metres, will separate from the rocket at an altitude of 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) a little under half an hour after blast-off.

Then begins JUICE's long and winding path towards Jupiter, which is 628 million kilometres from Earth.

Because the spacecraft lacks the power to fly straight towards Jupiter, it will have to slingshot around other planets to get a gravitational boost.

First, it will do a fly-by of Earth and the Moon, then slingshot around Venus in 2025 before swinging past Earth again in 2029.