Atlas V launches Juno to Jupiter

8/5/11 ~ 12:25 p.m.

An Atlas V rocket, flying in its biggest, most powerful configuration for just the second time (a 551 with five solid rocket boosters), sends NASA's $1.1 billion Juno spacecraft on a five-year voyage to the planet Jupiter. Juno is just the second ever probe to orbit Jupiter, following in the footsteps of the Galileo mission which was launched aboard the space shuttle in 1989 and explored Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. Juno is due to arrive in Jovian polar orbit on July 4, 2016. The spacecraft marks the farthest use of solar arrays from the sun in history, a choice picked over the use of nuclear RTGs.