Employees, graduate trainees, and astronaut trainees took a short break from their daily work at ESA’s astronaut centre in Cologne, Germany, to watch the liftoff of ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, ‘Juice’ mission that is now headed on an eight-year journey to Jupiter. The astronaut candidates had just completed the first two weeks of their basic training at the European Astronaut Centre and enjoyed another benefit of working for a space agency: rocket launches!

The Ariane 5 rocket carrying Juice took off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 14 Arpil 2023 at 14:14 CEST (13:14 BST), and the team at EAC celebrated along with all ESA as the rocket launched into orbit, sending Juice on its way to observe the gas giant Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons – Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.

The journey to Jupiter will take about eight years, during which Juice will benefit from flybys of Earth and Venus to slingshot it towards its destination. In the time it takes Juice to fly to Jupiter ESA’s new astronaut recruits will have finished basic training, and maybe have been assigned a mission, some will even have flown to space already.

Head into the weekend with your favourite space juice and follow ESA science for updates on the new Jupiter mission.