The Final Countdown: Juno Spacecraft Enters Jupiter Today, Coincides With 4th of July Celebrations

NASA's Juno spacecraft is reportedly going to enter Jupiter's orbit tonight. July 4 will mark the day when the spacecraft will finally reach its destination, the biggest known planet of the solar system, after travelling for five long years.

Going to a party this #FourthofJuly? Take @NASA with you! Stream live as I get to #Jupiter. https://t.co/illSYqwGol pic.twitter.com/vyx3aq24cT

— NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) July 2, 2016

The main event on Monday night will be Juno's 35-minute engine burn that will take place at 11:18 p.m. EDT to slow down the spacecraft so that Jupiter's strong gravity can capture it. As per a report by Space, here is the schedule for the final countdown to Jupiter.

9:16 p.m. EDT Monday: The Juno spacecraft gradually starts to turn away from the sun and proceeds for its orbit insertion orientation.

10:28 p.m. EDT: A faster turn towards the orbit insertion orientation will take place. Incidentally, both the maneuvers (this one and the one prior to this) are preprogrammed and the spacecraft has been on autopilot mode since June 30.

10:41 p.m. EDT: The spacecraft will shift to low gain antenna with which the mission will send status updating tones during the orbit insertion maneuvers, as well as will fine tune the process.

10:56 p.m. EDT: The spin rate of the spacecraft will be boosted from two to five revolutions per minute, so that the stability for the orbit insertion burn can be increased.

11:18 p.m. EDT: The primary engine of the spacecraft will begin to fire in the orbit insertion burn, a process which should slow Juno by 1,950 kilometers per hour. The slowdown will allow the spacecraft to be captured by the gravity of Jupiter into a 53.5-day-long orbit.

11:53 p.m. EDT: The procedure of orbit insertion will end.

11:55 p.m. EDT: The spin rate of the spacecraft will be reduced again to five revolutions per minute from two. The entire procedure will take about five minutes.

12:07 a.m. EDT Tuesday: Juno will again start to point back toward the sun.

12:11 a.m. EDT: The spacecraft will change back to medium gain antenna.

12:16 a.m. EDT: The Juno mission will start to send back detailed telemetry information to our planet. According to mission members, it will most probably take 20 minutes to lock onto the signal from Juno. It takes approximately 48 minutes for light to travel to Earth from Jupiter; therefore the data transmission too is not expected to be fast.

1 a.m. EDT: A news conference will be held by NASA and Juno team members at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California to give an update about the orbit insertion process.

Facebook Live will show a live coverage on orbit insertion day. Viewers can also catch the action at NASA TV.

Follow today’s #NASASocial group & learn all about tomorrow's @NASAJuno arrival at #Jupiter: https://t.co/SgTwDdjVWV pic.twitter.com/MVYFCFGH6a — NASA Social (@NASASocial) July 3, 2016