The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) moved into the Large Space Simulator at ESTEC end May, in a two-day operation. During a month-long test campaign the spacecraft will be subject to extreme temperature cycles under vacuum to replicate the heating and cooling that the spacecraft will experience on its way to Jupiter. The Large Space Simulator is Europe's single largest vacuum chamber standing 15 m high and 10 m wide.

Once in the Jovian system Juice will make detailed observations of Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa – with a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments. The mission will investigate the emergence of habitable worlds around gas giants and the Jupiter system as an archetype for the numerous giant exoplanets now known to orbit other stars.