After a five-year journey through the solar system, NASA’s Juno spacecraft is scheduled for orbital insertion on Monday, July 4th. Due to the time delay between Earth and Jupiter, the insertion will be in the hands of the computers aboard the spacecraft, and mission specialists will have to wait 48 minutes to know if it was a success.

Sounds a lot like those long moments of terror when Curiosity plunged towards Mars four years ago.

If all goes well, Juno will study Jupiter (less so its moons) using orbital maneuvers much like the spacecraft Cassini has used in the Saturn system for the past twelve years.

Here is the Juno arrival timeline in EDT and GMT:

http://www.space.com/33333-juno-spacecraft-jupiter-arrival-timeline.html

Here is the official NASA page on the mission with a countdown and info on using the awesome NASA Eyes app:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/main/index.html

Also, some helpful what-to-expect/how to watch info from Space.com and the Planetary Society’s Emily Lakdawalla:

http://www.space.com/33333-juno-spacecraft-jupiter-arrival-timeline.html

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2016/07011514-how-to-watch-junos-orbit.html

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2016/06090600-what-to-expect-from-junocam.html

 

Image courtesy of NASA.gov